A Better Start
by LUDACHRl5
Summary: The Sandaime makes a bit of a change to the Academy. Now that the rookies are 18 something interesting is bound to happen.  Not the Mikoto you expect.
1. Chapter One

**I'm a bit of a comma whore so try to bear with me.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Naruto. This is a purely fan made story and I make no money from writing or posting it. Though any OC's I make are mine, please ask if you wish to use them. **

…**.**

BEEEEP-BEEEEP-BEE-SMASH!

"Mmmnnmmmnn. Just gimme ten more minutes…zzzzz" The blue eyed teen cracked an eye open and mumbled in his dreary state after slamming his hand down onto his now ruined alarm clock, before rolling over. Too bad that this put his eyes in the direct path of a beam of light that sneaked past his curtains and into the room.

"Gah! …fucking Mondays…" Naruto groaned as he reluctantly got out of bed and swept his newly ruined alarm clock into a conveniently placed trash can to the side of his night stand. Rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand and opened his closet that was filled with copies of the alarm clock he had just obliterated. He grabbed a fresh one, pre-installed with batteries and set to the correct time, and placed it where its predecessor once stood and awaited its own demise.

Slouching down the hallway and grabbing a towel from a closet along the way, he headed into the bathroom to sleepily start getting ready for his first day of his last year of ninja training.

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Konoha High Academy, KHA for short, is a recent addition to the shinobi program implemented by the Sandaime Hokage. In response to the surprising number of years of peace, for a shinobi village anyway, this institution was built to further train the ninja that would have been Gennin. This is all possible due to the ratio of the ninja ranks currently in service. Thirty five percent of Konoha's forces are Gennin, with the only chance to advance from that rank when not at war being the annual Chuunin Exams, which has an eighty percent chance of failure to advance. Not to mention the thirty percent chance of death in said exam.

In the original design phases of the KHA it was pointed out that sixty percent of the students from the Academy that showed that they learned the entire curriculum were still failed by their Jonin teachers and sent back to the Academy for another year of training. Or dropping out entirely. On average the number of students that showed some form of promise to pass the Academy only to fail is about ninety, annually. That is ninety more possible Chuunin in the average 3 years it takes to progress to that rank.

To fix this problem the Academy boosted its curriculum and added one more year of training, to help strengthen any student that was on the fence of having the necessary skills to graduate. Then the students were sent to the KHA for an extra four years of training in more advanced subjects.

While the Academy was mainly focused on the basics, theory, and the history along with conditioning and some scenario training, the KHA curriculum was much more focused on field work. Seals, team and individual based strategy, information gathering, stealth and infiltration, as well as scenario based training covering more in-depth on how to act with a client or against different enemies. Also, more jutsu were taught on top of the basic three in conjunction with the two essential chakra control exercises to all ninja, wall and water walking. Most of the jutsu taught were generally techniques that can be used in many different situations, as well as defensive and offensive techniques varying based on the students chakra level, control, and element.

On top of the ninjutsu and academics were the taijutsu and endurance lessons. With the help of Might Gai developing the style and lesson plan, the KHA teaches a much more advanced form of taijutsu that can be suited to each type of fighter. Whether they prefer offensive based techniques, defensive based, or are more acrobatic and able to dodge more easily for a countering style.

There are also lessons on medicine and shinobi healing arts, and the study of the human anatomy for varying reasons, most commonly being the weak points of the body to attack. Most students never learned more than the technique to heal scratches and cuts or the diagnostic technique, but that is still more than what the Academy teaches.

All of these curriculums and more require four more years of training. The first full class of students to go through all of the training was the last year's class, including students such as Hyuuga Neji, Higurashi Tenten and Rock Lee. But thanks to an error in the timing for the class to graduate, they were unable to complete the number C-class missions to participate in the Chuunin Exams that year. This error was fixed by starting the classes at an earlier time in the year.

As a pre-requisite to graduation all students must complete at least four D-rank missions a month, either solo or in a group. This averages out to a mission a week. This is to make sure that all of the tasks within the village are taken care of, since the would-be Gennin won't be Gennin for four more years.

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Naruto walked up the stairs to the fourth floor, where his first class of the day was. He was wearing a black sleeveless vest with orange shoulders and three orange accent lines running down his chest; one down the zipper, and two down along the sides of his pecks and abs. Underneath this was a short sleeved mesh shirt. He wore black pants with an orange stripe running down each side of the leg, bandage wrapped ankles and black ninja sandals.

The KHA building was four stories high, with each floor number representing which year the students were in. For example, the second years took up the second floor. The teachers had their own rooms on the floor that they taught on, with their rooms on either side of the building with the classrooms in the middle.

The grounds of the building were much bigger than the Academy's, with the addition of different terrains, taijutsu dojo's and marksman posts and targets.

Naruto looked at the yellow piece of paper that had his class list on it and walked down the hallway until he reached his first classroom of the day. Entering, he noticed that there weren't too many people here yet, less than a dozen, and waved to a few people he recognized from his previous years and classes. Taking this chance to claim his favorite at the top back near the window he plopped down and set his bag underneath the long treated wood desk that fits three people. After checking the time on the clock, and seeing that he had a god fifteen minutes, twenty if the teacher was a bit late, for a short nap.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Naruto woke from his peaceful slumber from a not so peaceful shove to his shoulder. Sitting back and looking at the one that woke him he groaned on the inside. "What is it, fan girl?"

Fan girl bristled at the name, but shook it off. "You're in my seat, whiskers." she threw back.

Naruto shrugged. "Then you should have gotten here earlier, Uchiha. In fact, I was a bit surprised that you weren't. What, did you trip over a log or something? Man, you and that log, it's like your nemesis." He grinned, knowing that whenever they were pit against each other for sparring practice he always managed to get in a good Kawarimi, and taunted her about it relentlessly.

Coal black eyes flashed red in irritation before returning to normal. "Whatever dobe, you know I always sit in the back near the window."

Naruto nodded, with his eyes closed and his arms crossed. "Yes, of course. And you want this seat because there aren't five rows of seats in front of me with a window and no one sitting in them. I see."

At this time a group of girls climbed the stairs, talking amongst themselves when they saw the two. One of the girls, with long blonde hair in a high ponytail and a bang obscuring one side, decided to speak up. "Hey Mikoto, what's up? You two are rarely seen talking to each other, really only when techniques are being thrown around and things are getting blown up." Yamanaka Ino commented.

Uchiha Mikoto, last loyal member of her clan alive and in the village, looked at the new group. She was wearing a skin tight sleeveless black undershirt that stops at her navel and an open white minimalist vest held in place by a white strap across the top of her abdomen. For the lower body Mikoto wore pants of the same skintight fabric as her undershirt with a white short skirt supported by straps connecting it to the bottom sides of the vest. On her right thigh was an equipment holster, and a small utility pouch on her back left hip clipped to the top of her skirt. Her mid-back length hair was bulled back into low pony tail and held with white bandages leaving her long side bangs to frame her face and reach her shoulders. "Hn. Whatever dobe, keep your seat." Mikoto walked down two tiered rows to a table near a window with no one sitting at it.

The other girls dispersed to their own desired seats throughout the room when the bell to start the class rang.

Exactly as soon as everyone was seated, the teacher walked into the class and stood behind a podium and addressed the room. "Good morning everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your break from classes because we are going to be jumping right into the lessons. Now, I am Umino Iruka, and I will be your history and stealth teacher for this semester, and your Advanced Electronics teacher for your last semester. Since I already know all of you, and you all hopefully remember me, we can get right to the good part. So, open your books to page ten and we will look at the first chapter, about the history of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and how their weapons are passed down through the generations to their predecessors. Anyone want to volunteer to read the first paragraph out loud?" No one raised their hands. "...of course not…"

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It was a week into the school semester and the fourth year class has the entire day free save for the evaluations that are held three times a semester to judge the students progress. These include a written test, throwing test and a combination test of infiltration, stealth, information gathering and assassination. That is all well and good, but what the students get so hyped about the tests for is the hand to hand exam.

To promote competition and increase the student's drive to improve themselves they are faced up against each other in these tests, normally against others that are at the same level as they are. Each student has to compete twice, once against an opponent with similar skills as they do and against one that has skills that focus on their weaknesses.

Now we find ourselves nearing the end of the examination day, with most of the students scratched or bruised to varying degrees and the landscape having to be repaired numerous times. The current fighters were two women, and both with their areas of focus being their taijutsu. The match came to an end when one girl managed to land a quick side kick to the leading leg of her opponent. Following the strike the girl grabbed her competitor and threw her down to the ground and managed to straddle her chest and was about to strike down on her when an instructor called the match. Both girls stood, shook hands and walked off together chatting away like nothing happened.

Iruka looked at his clipboard and called out the next pair. Normally boys and girls were rarely put together, but there were always exceptions…

"Mikoto, you're up."

The Uchiha walked towards Iruka with a calm expression and a relaxed step.

"Naruto, you are her opponent."

The field suddenly became quiet as Naruto ended his conversation with a fellow student and sauntered up to face his opponent. There was a heavy presence that got heavier with each step Naruto took into the field. Everyone knew what it was, Naruto used this technique in his last match. The feeling was so oppressive that his opponent had given up when the fight had started and Naruto had tripled his aura as soon as the hand had dropped.

Everyone knew about the Kyuubi that he held, but this wasn't that power, at least not as far as anyone else knew. This was more than likely a product of his heritage, being the son of the Yondaime Hokage, the man with the largest recorded reserves in recent history.

By using this presence technique, a less violent version of the standard killing intent, Naruto often won by default. Because it essentially floods the area with the user's chakra, everyone within it can feel that there is no trace of Kyuubi's power mixed in. It was all Naruto. No one really wanted to know what it would be like if it wasn't.

Uchiha Mikoto, the highest marking ninja of her class, and slated for the title of 'Rookie of the Year', knew all too well of Naruto's power. Having been put up against him more often than not due to the two of them being the strongest of their year, she knew the ins and outs of how he fought. She also knew of how unpredictable he was, having lost only due to his unpredictability despite having awakened and achieved the three tomoe Sharingan.

Mikoto was the best at almost everything she did. Top marks on written assignments, top marksmanship, flawless taijutsu, excellent genjutsu, debatably the fastest ninja in their grade. But, the things she was not the best at she was second, behind Naruto. He was physically the strongest, he had the most power, could use techniques in more ways than she could and was undeniably better at stealth than she was. If it wasn't for her being better at everything else he would be the one to be in line for the Rookie of the Year.

The two squared off, standing up straight and staring into each other's eyes, waiting for the signal to start.

This was their first match of the year, to determine who was ahead.

The faster, more skillful Uchiha. Black eyes bled red with three concentric tomoe slowly circling the pupil.

Or the stronger, more unpredictable Uzumaki. The presence doubled upon itself, the weaker students in the crowd were starting to sweat from the pressure.

Iruka slowly raised his hand, glanced at the two, then dropped it as he jumped back. "Begin!"

Mikoto immediately tried to close the gap, knowing that she was the more skilled hand to hand fighter and that her Sharingan gave her an edge as long as she could keep an eye on him at all times. She tossed a pair of shuriken at her opponent to keep him occupied for that single instant she needed to get close.

What she didn't expect was for Naruto to not dodge at all, and get a complimentary pair of throwing stars stuck in his left shoulder and abdominals. Then she saw it, the sign that it was a trick, thanks to her enhanced eyesight. Naruto's chakra flickered in a peculiar way, a way she had seen him do on numerous occasions throughout the years. That was the sign of a Kawarimi and a clone being displaced at the same time. 'Damn, a clone!'

An odd fact about the Shadow Clone Technique is that, aside from the Byakugan, it is increasingly hard to tell apart from the original. For the weaker illusionary Clone technique there are many tells that give it away. They cast no shadow, they weigh nothing, and since they are an illusion they contain very little chakra. Most ninja can tell when they are looking at an illusion clone based on these facts, though there are still some uses for the technique. But, the shadow clone has none of these weaknesses. They have weight, they cast shadow, and they can contain large amounts of chakra.

Even with the Sharingan, with the ability to see, memorize and evaluate everything instantly including the ability to see the flow of chakra it is ridiculously hard to tell a shadow clone apart from the user. Naruto knew this too, which is why it is his greatest weapon against her with his ridiculous stamina.

Looking away from the small puff of smoke she expected from the felled clone she swept the area. For these spars they were given little cover, making it easier to evaluate the students. There was only a hand full of trees and shrubs inside the limits, meaning he had to be somewhere close.

Running through hand signs she created a wall of flame from her mouth that engulfed all three trees and four of the six bushes in flame. Not seeing any movement she quickly turned around, where the last of the cover was and barely had time to push a fist out of its path to her face. Taking three quick steps back she settled into her ready stance, staring at her opponent with her red eyes.

Naruto was chuckling a bit as he stared at his closed fist. "Man, the one time I get to hit a girl back and I can't. So goes the way of my life, I suppose." Naruto quickly stepped into his own fighting stance. "What's wrong? You're normally much faster than this."

The Uchiha continued to stare into the eyes, secretly casting small and unnoticeable genjutsu upon the blond. As long as he didn't know what was happening to his senses…

Naruto dashed forward this time, making three shadow clones along the way. Two clones flanked to the side while one went on ahead even faster than the original.

Mikoto glanced at the two flanking clones before focusing on the one in front, which would reach her first. Standing her ground she lowered her center of gravity a bit in preparation and took out a kunai. Blocking the leading clones leaping kick with an angled forearm she stabbed it in the leg before leaping back as the other two clones converged on her with high and low right hook punches.

Lashing out with the blade in her left hand and grabbing the other by the wrist, she dispelled one clone and threw the other into the path of the original.

Only, the clone dispelled before making contact and left her vision obscured. Taking a precautionary step back, she readied her knife once more, eyes blazing.

As she expected, Naruto leapt out of the smoke with a flying tackle. Only to get heel kicked in the chest. Which caused him to explode into smoke, also as she expected.

On alert once more and glancing around for any more hiding spots she was surprised when she was grabbed from below and dragged into the ground, leaving only her head exposed.

Naruto pulled himself out of the ground in front of her and dusted off his vest and pants. "Haha, can't predict what ya can't see, can ya. Sorry about your clothes getting dirty; know how much you hate that. White clothes and all."

The Uchiha's eye left eye twitched. Her Sharingan slowly spinning up again. "Ignition."

Puff~!

Naruto's brow furrowed. "Ignition? What is that?" That is when he felt it, the heat coming from his head. "Oh…" he stood there for a second, and then the information of what exactly was happening came rushing into his brain. He then began to jump around and scream as he tried to pat out his hair, which was on fire.

Poof. The Naruto clone exploded, the heat of the fire finally reaching the clones damage threshold.

The real Naruto walked out from behind the Uchiha and stared at her wearily, rubbing his head from the clone's memory. "Okay, so that's a new one."

Mikoto let a smirk grace her face. "So is this." Poof. The Mikoto in the ground exploded in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto didn't get the chance to get his guard up in time, the girl had already appeared behind him and wrapped her left arm around his chest and fisted her hand in the collar of his vest to hold him still. Her right hand held a kunai's edge across his neck.

"Ah." a voice to her left side announced. "You know, I always thought you hated the log. But you know, with the way you are hugging it suggests otherwise." Naruto said with a chuckle as Mikoto glanced at him, then back to her arms. Sure enough a wooden log lay in her arms. She dropped it with a scowl, only to smirk as she kicked it at him.

Naruto's eyes widened as the log spun enough for him to see the tag she had planted on it just before she dropped it and he tried to jump away. The force of the blast pushed him farther away than he thought it would. Glancing behind him to where he would be landing his eyes widened at the sight of the wire trap laying in wait for him. He could do nothing as the wire snapped around him and dragged him upside down to hang from a still smoldering tree branch. "Damn it…"

Mikoto calmly walked towards him. "The prankster just got pranked. That is the highest level sealing wire currently available in the village. You aren't going anywhere dobe. Do you give up?"

Naruto's face looked like he was going to retort but finally sighed. "Fine, fine. You win this time fan girl."

Iruka called the match and recorded his evaluation. The crowd clapped and made some cheers.

Mikoto was about to cut him down when she felt his power spike, causing her to stumble back from the feeling. Naruto screwed up his face and she could see his body flex as the wire around him snapped like cheap fishing line.

Naruto flipped and landed on his feet. "Till next time then." He waved as he headed back to where he was originally talking to a girl from their class before the match started, getting patted on the shoulder as he walked by some boys from another class.

The Uchiha frowned at his back and walked out of the arena as a teacher put out the fires and restored what he could of the landscape. '_He was holding back…_'

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After school that day Naruto walked up to a large building with glass double doors. Walking inside he was welcomed with the cool air conditioning system and a smile from the middle aged woman sitting at the front desk with a corded office phone at her ear. He waved at her as he walked by.

This building was where the Jinchuriki normally did his weekly mission. Inside this building were rooms covered with conversion seals. The purpose of these rooms was to take the chakra that an individual releases, whether from a jutsu or pumping it straight into the room for the seals to absorb and convert into electricity. This converted electricity was used to supplement the village's power station, which has the benefit of lowering the taxes on electricity in the village.

As far as D-rank missions go this one has the most potential pay, though it isn't taken too often. The reason is that the mission pay is determined by how much electricity one produces. As you can imagine, most shinobi don't have enough chakra to reap the benefits of a facility like this one. But for a Jinchuriki with a bit of power to spare this place was ideal, it didn't take too much of his time either.

Naruto stepped into one of the rooms and closed and sealed the room to make sure none of his energy escaped. Let it be known that this place was ideal for hiding out from chakra sensors or Hyuuga.

Stepping up to the wall on the side he flipped a switch, starting the seal conversion process. Standing back in the middle of the room he closed his eyes and concentrated. He felt his chakra shift inside of himself, getting pushed aside by a much bigger force. "Hello Kyuubi, so nice of you to wake up."

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Katrina hummed a tune as she read a trendy magazine and sat back in her seat at the front desk of the Artificial Generator facility. She has had this job since it started. In her opinion it was a great way to meet and greet with the villages ninja, something a civilian like her rarely got to do. The pay wasn't too shabby either.

She looked up from her magazine as the building began to hum and slightly vibrate on its foundation. She shrugged it off since it was a common occurrence and got back to her reading. A few minutes later the disturbance stopped and she got a message on her computer. She wrote the information down on a check and sealed it, with the computer logging the information by itself and printing a copy at the mission office at the Hokage tower.

As soon as she finished sealing the envelope she placed it on the side of the counter that the hallway was on. Naruto walked down the hallway and into the lobby, picking up the envelope with his name on it. He smiled at the woman. "It was nice seeing you again Katie, same time next week?"

The older woman smiled at him and fluttered her eyelashes. "Of course sugar, you know I can't say no to such a pretty face."

Naruto laughed as he pushed open the glass door and wiped some sweat off of his forehead once he had stepped outside.

"You know, if you keep stalking me like this I'm going to have more than one reason to call you fan girl."

Mikoto landed twenty paces to his left, with her face in her usual calm expression. "You were holding out on me in the exam. I want to know why. Also, what is this place?"

Naruto walked down the street with his hands behind his head. "This is where I do my weekly mission. I supply the juice, then seals convert it to electricity to take the load off of the village's generators. You get paid for how much chakra you give, kinda like a blood drive I guess. Heh, I remember this one time the old man called me to his office cuz I put in enough power to overload the seals that were in place at the time. Ahhhh, good times."

The Uchiha caught up to him and hummed in acknowledgment. She didn't doubt that he could do such a thing, and was a bit surprised such a place existed. It was better than painting fences and babysitting. And if she used it to measure her reserves it would give her a better estimate of how powerful she was becoming, and how close she was to _him_…

"How much do you usually make from doing this? Normally D-ranks don't pay more than a hundred dollars for the more difficult ones." She wondered, not that she was in need of money.

The blond rubbed the back of his head. "Hehehe, ah, well, you see, you probably shouldn't base this place on how much I make from it. But I do know that the power from an average Gokyaku pays about thirty bucks. I can easily cube that amount, with no help from my fury little friend, so I have a bit of an advantage."

The brunette added that to her mental list. '_Find out what happens when he uses a fire technique at full power._' Not that she is a pyromaniac or anything, but she would be lying if she said that fire didn't get her a bit…hot. Pun intended. "Hnn. But you never answered my first question, why were you holding back?"

Naruto glanced at her from the corner of his eye, waving at an elderly couple on a bench at the park they were passing. "What would you have had me do pink-eye? Go all furry on you in the middle of class? Spam clones until your eyes pop out of your head trying to count them all? Make all of those clones explode with the force of a level three exploding tag, each? Make a hurricane the size of the campus? I don't have many small scale skills Mikoto, there is only so much I can do without it being labeled overkill. A few clones, taijutsu, weapons and replacement are about all I can do. My control isn't good enough for me to trust any of my other techniques with so many allies around me. The fight could have gone for as long as you could stand, and I figured we impressed the dolphin enough at the point that you had trapped me. Which was a nice setup by the way, I didn't even notice you made another clone to set it up."

The Uchiha stopped under the shade of a shops awning, smirking at the memory. Now if only she had the chance to use a Ryuuka on those wires… "Mmm. I didn't make another clone; the first one did it before she snuck up on you. You were under a small Genjutsu the entire time."

Naruto nodded his head at the bank across the street. "Ah, need to work on my detection skills some more I guess. But anyway, yeah, I was going all out for a spar."

Mikoto followed him quietly in contemplation as he deposited his check, managing to get a glimpse of the amount on the piece of paper. '_That…is a lot of zeros for a D-rank…_'

Walking back out of the bank as Naruto stuffed the deposit receipt into his pocket he turned his head to her. "So, other than stalking me, what else'r you doing today? I was planning on meeting up with Kimiko and a few others at this diner over on Prairie Street, supposed to be an opening sale or something."

The Uchiha thought of her plan to do shopping for dinner that night, but realized she could technically put that off to tomorrow if she went to this new restaurant. Besides, the company wouldn't be too bad. She hadn't talked to Kimiko since last semester when they got assigned different classrooms. And all of the others would probably talk enough to distract blondie here from bugging her too much. Naruto was one of the few males their age that she could have a decent conversation with that didn't include her tits and ass or how they should head over to their place sometime later. Well, when he wasn't goofing around at least. So really, the positives seemed to outweigh the negatives.

"Alright, but you're paying for me."

Naruto's head whipped to look at her with wide eyes. "What? How do you figure that?"

Mikoto shrugged and started walking in the direction of Prairie Street. "Consider it punishment for ending our fight. Just like a guy, always finishing things way too quickly."

Naruto's mouth turned into an 'O'. "Did I just hear that right? Did an Uchiha just make a sex joke? I think I'm rubbing off on you a bit too much."

Mikoto smirked. "Then stop rubbing off on me, I like these clothes too much for you to get messy."

"OH MY GOD! STOP IT, I CANT HANDLE ALL OF THE SUDDEN SEX JOKES!" Naruto burst out laughing, one hand holding his side and slightly hunched over from the effort of it.

"Shut up and get over here. Who else did you say was going to be there?"

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It turned out that a bit more than a few people showed up from their classes. The restaurant owners were eating up the publicity, an heir from every major clan had shown up as well as a few others from the KHA. So when the two showed up at the same time, together, and stuff wasn't exploding the other eighteen year olds made sure to comment on this. Right up until the only Uchiha in the room that could light things on fire by staring at them glared at the group. Then they dropped the subject and started their usual loud bout of greetings and chattering.

Mikoto took the chance she was given as they all were seated to look around at the establishment. The exterior didn't look too much different than some of the other restaurants in the area, situated in the upper middle class-ish section of the village. Though she did have to admit that the interior was nicely decorated, and gave off a shiny, new feeling. The lighting was a bit dimmer than most diners, it gave the impression that it was a bit ritzier than its price range suggested.

Looking at the menu she noticed how big the laminated booklet was, at least seven pages, front to back. Many of the items had pictures to go with the descriptions and health information on the side. So they took some time with this menu then, and not just slap some stuff together. Looking a bit more through the pages and ignoring the conversation that was being thrown above and around her she searched for the most expensive item on the menu that she would enjoy, since lobster was never a favorite. '_Full rack of ribs? No, too messy. The "Widow Maker burger"? No, not in the mood. Oysters? No, I've made enough sex jokes today that Naruto's head may explode if I order an aphrodisiac. Though everyone else's faces would be funny._'

Everyone's head turned to her when she let out a chuckle at the thought, but when she didn't look up from the menu everyone else continued on with their conversations. Deciding that she was undecided on what she was getting she asked the closest person to her. On her left sat Manami Kimiko, with her bright red hair and light blue eyes almost the color of a Yamanaka's.

Kimiko was Mikoto's first friend in the academy. She was very friendly and light hearted. Back in the Academy no one was not friends with the girl. It had taken her almost a full year to wear down the black eyed girls social wall and get her to share more than a few words, faster than even Naruto did, though Mikoto will deny as much until the day she dies. After the first breach of her social wall it was like people just started to pour into it, and suddenly everyone in the school was no longer reluctant to spend any time with her. Though it also helped that Mikoto was the top of the class and occasionally helped the others with their work in class and gave tips on the training field. Between Mikoto and Sakura it was hard to fail the academic classes, though Shikamaru was on such a fine edge that it was amazing that he had never gotten anything lower than a D on any report card.

Waiting for a small droop in the conversation the redhead was in Mikoto cut in. "What are you going to get?"

Kimiko glanced at her, then the page her menu was open to. "I was thinking of getting a pasta. I haven't decided on which one though, I'll make a quick decision when the waiter gets back with the drinks for our orders. You?"

Mikoto opened the menu to the pasta page and browsed through it again. "I'm still trying to decide." Though a minute of perusing later and she was smirking on the inside. '_Perfect. The look on his face will be worth not getting something more expensive. Though I could always get a dessert to add to the bill. And it will be completely innocent to everyone else._' She glanced up across the table at her humorous target.

…...

Naruto was enjoying himself quite a bit. Many more people had shown up than he had been told were coming, but it wasn't anything he minded. It was nice to get away from all of the ninja stuff for a while, though some of the conversation did tend to dip back into the subject before leaving it. It was also great to see so many people he knew but hasn't seen in a while, due to the recent break from classes. Despite Naruto's friendly attitude and all of the people that he talked to at school he didn't really hang out with too many of them outside of class or larger gatherings like this one.

He looked around the large table, at everyone enjoying themselves and laughing. Well, not everyone was laughing, but he was sure that they were all enjoying themselves. Shino just never laughed and Shikamaru looked to be sleeping.

He laughed as he listened to Kiba joke about how he had pranked his sisters shampoo with traces of catnip, an idea Naruto had mentioned to him at one point, and how she now has a habit of smelling her hair every once and a while to check if it happened again.

Just as everyone's laughter started to die down two waiters came out carrying trays with their drinks, then one left so the other could take everyone's order. It seemed like no one was ordering the same thing, with this restaurant offering a wide variety of food. Though they didn't have ramen, and no matter what you say chicken noodle soup is not ramen! When it got to be his turn he told the waiter that he would go with the country fried steak with redskin garlic mashed potatoes and some corn. He zoned out a bit as everyone else ordered, until he saw the girl sitting across from him order her food with a smile on her face. Mikoto _never_ smiled like that. What the hell did she order again? It would bother him until the food actually got to the table.

Haruno Sakura took over the female side of the conversation, describing the latest kunoichi fashion straight from Tea Country catalogues. She even brought out said catalogues to show pictures to everyone that would look. The guys all rolled their eyes to each other, until Akimichi Chouji started jiggl-…bouncing in his seat. "Food's here!"

Let it be known that Nara Shikamaru and Aburame Shino nearly lost their limbs closest to the large teen in his scramble to start eating as soon as his plate touched the table. Which was the first one by the way; all Konoha restaurants served any Akimichi before all others. There is always a betting pool going on at any eating event hosting an Akimichi and a high standing individual to see who gets served food first.

And then the waiter placed a plate of Alfredo pasta in front of Mikoto, and she was smiling. Naruto was more than a bit weirded out by her behavior. Ever since she showed up at the Artificial Generator facility she was a bit more…friendly? Yes, she was acting more friendly than she ever does. Especially to him, the one in the rumor mill to be her arch nemesis. Then she makes sex jokes, and now she's smiling at her plate of noodles.

She looked up and their eyes met. Suddenly Naruto realized that she didn't just wear a happy smile, but it was a bit evil too. And the glint in her eye wasn't sitting well with his stomach, as he touched his hair again as he still felt the ghost pain of being on fire from earlier in the day.

What the hell could pasta do to make _her_ smile like that? He tried thinking of anything he could do with pasta, and the only things he could come up with was making a joke of using the noodles as a wig or fake moustache, or using them as a whip to start a food fight. Uchiha Mikoto would not do either of those, he was damn sure. Did she just really like pasta?

All of the talking around the table quieted down as everyone dug into their dishes. In Naruto's opinion the place was great, from the food to the building and the prices. The only thing that would have made his experience better was if he wasn't glancing up from his food every time he took a bite to make sure something apocalyptic wasn't happening, managing to catch the coal black eyes across the table every time.

On what he estimated to be his seventh glance he saw it. He was sure that she knew he did as well from the way her eyes narrowed in evil glee like a predator that has caught her prey. It wasn't the noodles that had made her smile, exactly, but the sauce. The creamy white sauce that managed to collect on her lips and cheek when she slurped up the pasta. It was all in the way that she kept eye contact with him, slowly licking the creamy sauce off of her face.

"Oh god…" it escaped his mouth before he could do anything to stop it, and his mouth hung open slightly after the words came out. It was like a sack of bricks being swung against the back of his head as he looked at her. He had never really _looked_ at her before, not like this. The possibility that Uchiha fucking Mikoto could be hot had never really crossed his mind. Sure, he knew she was attractive, it was hard not to when you heard about how some poor sap got rejected on almost a weekly basis. He looked around at the table, with fresh understanding.

He was surrounded by _the most_ attractive women his age. Ino could have been a model, with the way her body and face were proportioned. Sakura should wear her hair up like that more often, reminding him of this one crazy Jonin in a trench coat with a body that was growing to match hers too. Hinata had definitely inherited the second Hyuuga bloodline, just look at those things! Kimiko was right on up there with Ino, and man, was he a sucker for that long sleeved mid drift jacket, bicycle shorts and thigh high leggings combination, especially since the jacket had orange. Which was his favorite color, if you didn't know. Ami was cute in her own way, with a much more innocent look, even with that mean streak in her. The other girls at the table were all lookers too; it must have something to do with those Kunoichi classes.

'_Wow, is this how Kiba sees things every day? No wonder he's always trying to hit on anyone that doesn't have something dangling between the legs._'

Coughing into his hand Naruto straightened his back and tried to eat his food with some semblance of calm. Though every time he looked at his gravy his cheeks turned a bit pink. All throughout the rest of the dinner Naruto was planning his revenge upon the woman in front of him continuing to torture him with her exaggerated eating.

He was also planning to take a cold shower.

….

'_Haaa, that was priceless. I wonder why I have never done this before, if this is what I can do to the dobe in just one sitting I wonder what would happen if I did this more often."_

The waiter came around and placed the desserts in front of the people that ordered it. Now sitting in front of her was a serving of deep fried ice cream. According to Chouji this ice cream was supposed to have been made by the restaurant from scratch, though she didn't really care as long as it tasted good. It also gave her a chance to turn up the innocent teasing a notch. After every bite she took the chance to lick and suck on the spoon in a way that was not necessary for eating ice cream. It made her chuckle evilly when every time she did this she saw the blond twitch out of the corner of her eye. She had discovered that if she turned away from him for this maneuver he twitched even more and the others wouldn't notice and assume she was listening in on the conversations starting up again around the table.

A minute later the waiter came around again to place a check in front of everybody, really this waiter was very quick about his job and very accommodating.

Everyone else at the table's eyes widened as Naruto smoothly picked up her check and slipped into his check holder and placed his credit card in the slot for the waiter to come pick up, not even looking at the prices. A minute later the waiter came back around the table and picked up the check holders and left mints in his wake.

Kimiko spoke up for everybody else, "Okay, what is going on here you two. First you show up together, and now blondie is picking up your tab. Is there something happening between you guys?"

Mikoto, who had her ice cream spoon stuck in her mouth and was moving it around with her tongue grabbed the utensil and placed it into the empty bowl. "No, whiskers just owes me. That's all. Tonight was just the easiest way to pay me back. Right?"

Naruto nodded with his usual grin. "Yeah, somehow that's what ended up happening."

Everyone nodded, believing that that's what the two believed. In everyone's mind those two had always been acting like children that show their affection in mean ways. Most of the students in their year, and the ones younger than them, had always wondered if the two would ever try anything together. Besides, the most talked about heir and the most praised heiress, the arguably most powerful two ninja within five years of their age in the village would make a great public couple.

After exchanging friendly hugs, handshakes and fist bumps the large group split into smaller ones, each heading in a separate direction. Naruto ended up walking next to Hinata, Kiba and Mikoto, with them all being in the larger clan district of the village.

Hinata was a friendly and soft spoken person to talk to. Naruto had a hard time believing anyone ever having a grudge against her. She was telling Kiba about her sister and how she was always complaining about the Sandaime's grandson always playing jokes on her. She thought that the two would really make a cute couple, and their behavior was just misplaced affection. Kiba and Hinata made sure to pointedly stare at the other two walking with them when this was mentioned.

Hinata was the first to break off from the group to head down a different road, with Kiba following after her 'because it's dangerous for a woman to be out alone so late at night.' Even Akamaru sniggered at that as he shuffled after his partner. Really, Hinata was insane to go up against in a close quarters fight and her Byakugan rendered the darkness a useless advantage.

That just left Naruto and Mikoto walking down the street quietly, shoulder length apart. Finally Naruto broke the silence, running a hand down his face. "That back there was fucking evil. You have ruined my innocent mind and warped my views on society as a whole."

The girl next to him kept a straight face. "But it was so much fun. Now I know why you used to pull all of those pranks back in the Academy. Besides, you're a guy. Your life revolves around sexual tension."

Naruto just let out a frustrated sigh and shoved his hands in his pockets, trying to stop the images of the girl beside him doing…_things_ with her mouth. How the hell was he going to look at her in the eye from now on, let alone spar against her? '_Maybe that was her plan all along, to make it impossible for me to look at her. Hmmm, maybe…_'

As Mikoto strode up to the gateway to the abandoned Uchiha district Naruto surprised her by twirling her against the large wooden doors and pinning her back against it. Slipping one arm around her lower back he leaned in against her and brought his face down close to hers. He stared into her wide eyes as he ran his hand across her cheek and made a show of examining every detail of her face. Twining his fingers in her hair and cupping the side of her head he tilted her it just enough for her to know what was going on, but she was too frozen to stop it.

Naruto slowly brought his lips in towards hers, so close that they are breathing the same air and their foreheads were toughing. He ran his thumb across her lips and her breath hitched against her will. "Is this enough sexual tension for you?" he said breathily with lidded eyes and brought his mouth forward.

Poof! The Naruto in front of her vanished, but she didn't move from her spot against her clan's gates. Shakily she brought a hand up to her lips, where she was sure she had felt his brush against hers by the faintest of margins.

…..

Naruto was racing across the rooftops, leaping high into the air to clear several buildings at once on his way to his home. "FuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK!" he shouted out into the night.

That had not been what he had planned. All he wanted to do was mess with her head a little bit, give her a taste of what she was dishing out. '_What a great fucking time for my fucking hormones to take over!_'

He opened his front door and slammed it shut behind him, where he leaned back against it and pounded the back of his head against the wood. "Stupidstupidstupid. Fuck, she's going to kill me first chance she gets. What's not to say she's heading over to do it tonight?" He slammed his hand on a section of the wall that was painted differently than the rest, where a seal flashed. Outside the home all of the walls, gates, doors and windows glowed. "Should I even go to school tomorrow? Fuck, it's a Friday so we'll probably have a fucking test. God damn it."

Standing from the wall he ran a hand through his hair. Which was the wrong thing to do, since he still remembered what her hair felt like when he ran his hand through it. "Gah! Fuck the cold shower! I need to jump in a bathtub filled with ice to be able to sleep tonight."

Later that night he sat at his desk staring blankly at his book and notes, trying to study for the test tomorrow. Even though he was looking at them his thoughts were wandering elsewhere.

….

**I should have put up pictures showing Naruto's new outfit, Mikoto, and Kimiko by the time I posted this chapter.**

**Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did typing it.**


	2. Chapter Two

It was looking to be a nice, peaceful day in the ninja village known as Konoha. The sun was slowly rising from the east, gradually basking everything in its warming glow. It was still relatively early in the morning, so there were very few people out and about outside to bask in the sun's warmth.

One of these people that were still inside their house and still in their bed was a blond haired blue eyed eighteen year old. Naruto was enjoying his peaceful slumber, having only gotten to sleep hours ago due to his emotional turmoil the night before. But he wasn't worrying about that now. Nope, right now he was dreaming about how he would look in the Hokage's hat-

A figure landed against the wall just to the side of the blonds bedroom window. The mysterious wall walker seemed to admire the seal protecting the abode, before tearing through it like crafting paper.

-He even thought about his father's bad ass coat that was hanging in the office. Him with the Hokage's hat and his father's coat equals epic win. In his opinion anyway.-

With nothing to stop the intruder they opened the window and stepped in, glancing around at the shadows as a habit. Taking a deep breath they stepped towards the bed.

-Now he was standing on top of the Hokage tower, with everyone bowing to him on the street. Except for one, this black haired girl was on her knees in front of him and kissing his feet as he laughed in victory. He tried extra hard not to recognize or imagine other things she could be doing to him from where she was.-

The towering figure in the room grabbed the sheets and ripped them off of the teen while yelling at the top of their lungs. "NARUTO! HOW IS MY GODSON DOING THIS FINE MORNING?"

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Naruto exclaimed as he leaped from his laying position into a battle stance standing on his bed. He stared blurrily at his assailant before slumping his shoulders and relaxing his stance.

"God damn it Ero-Sennin, what the hell are you doing here at" a quick glance at his alarm clock on his nightstand "five in the fucking morning?"

Jiraya stepped back so Naruto could step down from his bed. "What, I can't drop by just to see my favorite grandson in the morning?"

Naruto ran a hand across his closed eyes to try and make himself less sleepy. It wasn't working. "First off, I'm your only godson. And second, you can come see me if you want, as long as it is between ten and ten. Any earlier or later than that makes me more liable to maim you. So what are you really doing here, besides the fact that the bath houses are closed this early in the morning."

Jiraya led Naruto down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he started making an apology breakfast. May wonders never cease. "I was just dropping by to check on how far you were on your fathers jutsu."

Naruto's head perked up from where he was laying it on his counter top. "What jutsu? You mean I was supposed to be learning stuff this entire time? How am I supposed to be learning anything when I don't have a scroll or something to learn from? And you're not exactly here all the time to be a fountain of information either."

Jiraya looked over his shoulder as he flipped the cooking bacon. "You mean you haven't found your old man's library yet?"

Naruto poured two tall glasses of orange juice, picking one up for himself. "You mean there's one other than the shelves in the study? Then nope, I haven't found it. Didn't really know to look for it either."

Jiraya shrugged and said he'd show it to him when they finished with the food. Twenty minutes later the pair was standing in front of the closet located in the front entryway to the left of the front door. Naruto looked at his guardian incredulously and opened the closet, only to find a closet. The same one he'd known was there for the more than nine years. Looking around the small space he checked the interior for any seals he may have missed or secret entryways. There were none to be found.

Stepping back out, he looked to Jiraya for an explanation. Jiraya just grinned wider and closed the door, confusing the hell out of the teen. Making sure he had Naruto's full attention he proceeded to tap three times on the door, causing a seal to appear. He then placed his palm on the seal and turned it ninety degrees counter clockwise. There was a distinctive click that sounded and the seam of the door had a glow around it that started from top to bottom before fading away.

Jiraya stepped back and exaggeratedly waving him towards the door like a hotel doorman. Naruto was too amazed to really pay attention to the perverted man's eccentric ways. Opening the door he saw it was nothing like it was before. A room a bit bigger than the Hokage's office stood before him, stocked with shelves of books and scrolls on each side and a desk in the middle. Behind the desk was a large portrait of Namikaze Minato in his bad ass coat and his mother Uzumaki Kushina standing at the top of the Hokage Mountain with the village as a backdrop. Below the large framed picture was a relatively large safe.

Jiraya strutted in like he owned the place. "This my boy is the real meat and potatoes of this mansion. In this room is the sum knowledge of both your father and mother. All of their techniques, all of their missions, everything. Even an unpublished autobiography of them, would have made a killing with Minato being 'The Strongest Shinobi in Generations' and all that. Your mother was no slouch either, a well respected Jonin before she went on maternity leave when she got pregnant with you."

Naruto ran his hand along a row of book spines as he looked around.

Jiraya stepped around the desk and placed his hand on top of the safe, feeling the hum of power it emitted. One of his greater sealing works in his opinion. "This here holds what we're looking for though. Your father's most powerful and famous techniques: the Rasengan and the Hiraishin, among other things. I'm sure you've heard of them."

Naruto's eyes widened as he quickly walked in front of the large safe. "How do we open it?"

There was no coded dial like most safes, probably due to the fact that any ninja worth their salt would be able to crack such a safety mechanism.

Like with the secret door Jiraya tapped on the top of the safe three times and a seal appeared on the center of the door, which he placed his hand on. A soft feminine voice came from somewhere on the safe. "What is held within this metal box?"

Jiraya looked on melancholically. "Ask a silly question and receive a silly answer." He looked at Naruto who was looking at the safe in befuddlement. "That was a voice recording of your mother asking for a password."

Sure enough there was the sound of sliding metal and a click of the locks undoing themselves. This time a male's voice came out. "A place for everything and everything in its place."

Naruto's eyes widened even more and looked at Jiraya, who just nodded. "Your father." Naruto already knew what he would be doing later that night. Opening and closing this safe until he couldn't possibly forget the voices.

Tugging the safe door open Jiraya pulled out two books and a wooden box, each book was at least four hundred pages. "In the books are the notes on either of the techniques. And in the box…" Opening the box after tucking the books under an arm he held it out to Naruto.

Sitting inside the wooden box, relatively flat but wide and lengthy, were twenty tri-pronged kunai knives. Not too hard to figure out what they were for, even considering what little he knew about his father. He looked up to a proud looking Jiraya. "I can really learn to use these?"

The Sannin placed a hand on the boys shoulder and chuckled. "Oh yeah kid, with just these you won't need to know anything else on the battlefield. But before you go to start getting a big ass ego know that it took me three years to master the Rasengan, which in itself is an incomplete technique. You'll figure out why later. And I haven't the foggiest on the Hiraishin other than the sealed kunai you got there in that box."

Naruto looked around the room as he closed the box and put it and the Hiraishin text back in the safe. "Yeah, so I should focus on the Rasengan then?" he asked as he opened the book to skim through it as he walked out of the room, it closing an sealing on its own as they left.

Jiraya nodded. "That would probably be your best bet. And with your abundance of excess energy and your shadow clones you could probably learn it faster than I did."

Naruto looked up from the book. "Huh? How's that?"

Jiraya just palmed his face and slowly dragged it down. "Damn it all…"

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Uchiha Mikoto was not in a good mood, not that you could tell from her outward appearance other than the slight darkening around the eyes. But that could be passed off as make up. She had been up literally the entire night. With her emotions being as confused as they are it was amazing she hadn't snapped at anyone, or snapped anyone. '_Shinobi rule 25: A shinobi must never show emotion._' This was the mantra that kept her in check, for now.

Truthfully she was getting fed up with how much the other night was affecting her. After going over the scene in her head numerous times she had deduced that the dumb blond hadn't meant to kiss her. The timing of the replacement was too perfect to be anything else. He had been expecting to get in close and had primed the replacement with a dispelling clone, but not to touch. No, that was her fault. She had finished what he had started, the moment getting to her at the time.

This was her real problem, with herself. She would have been fine if things had gone as she figured Naruto had planned them, she could have shrugged it off as a prank to get back at her for her actions at the diner. But now that she realized that _she_ was responsible for her mixed up emotions she was forced to re-evaluate said emotions.

Was it really only a heat of the moment thing? Did she have some form of lust for the blond, the only one her age that she wasn't able to dominate, in every sense of the word? Did she hold some _other_ feelings for him? Recently she determined that she could find out by thinking of all of the other boys she knew and see if she could put herself in the same situation with them, no matter how much she didn't want to think about it.

Looking at the closest boy to her she spied Aburame Shino sitting quietly. Replacing him with Naruto in her memories she shivered discreetly. No, defiantly not. Shino was undoubtedly a strong ninja and a clan heir, and very nice and easy going, but he was even quieter than her and Hinata. And the bugs. The bugs were quite the turn off; she hoped he eventually found someone that could look past that. Because she couldn't.

The next boy she looked at was Inuzuka Kiba. Undeniably the loudest boy in the class, even topping Naruto when he got rowdy. Again, he is a strong ninja from a prominent clan, and she secretly enjoyed watching his pranks unfold. And again he had one major flaw she could not look past. Okay two major flaws, he seems to hate taking baths as much as a dog and he tries to get in the pants of every girl that has bigger tits than an A-cup. Which was every girl in the class, recently including Sakura. She couldn't even start replacing him with Naruto in her memory, just imagining his scent reminded her that she wouldn't let him get that close.

Next up to bat was Nara Shikamaru. A clan heir, again, and a difficult opponent, again. She had seen him plan his way out of every match he was in, including against her. She still hadn't forgiven him for making her jump and knock herself out by hitting her head on a tree branch. Most embarrassing loss of her life. Though he was incredibly lazy and complained about everything. She doubted he would even try to pull something like Naruto had last night, claiming things like it being too troublesome. So he strikes out.

The mental list went on and on, she tried every single guy in the room with similar results. She didn't dislike them but she couldn't imagine herself acting as she had yesterday with them.

Chouji was a good guy but a bit too…_grand _for her to think of romantically.

Sai was friendly, but she could tell that it was fake and therefore meaningless.

After going through all the many more choices she discovered that there was really only one person that she could think of that could do that and get away with it was…

She heard a sigh from beside her and the chair to her right get pulled out and sat on. "What a great morning this is, eh pink-eye? And to top it off you steal my chair."

Mikoto looked over and saw the last person she wanted to see right now sitting next to her and leaning back casually, almost tipping over the chair. '_Sounds like he took things the same way I did. Though it doesn't seem like he realize how I…It will probably be much easier to let him believe whatever he does, for both of us.'_

"It's my chair, dobe. You just stole it yesterday, among other things…" she let that hang. Though she said the last part lowly so no one else heard. '_Definitely don't need rumors spreading about us. Just imagining what a hassle Kimiko would be is headache worthy, let alone Ino or Sakura. Hinata would probably try to murder me in my sleep despite her thing with Kiba.'_

Naruto sighed and leaned forward while rubbing his face with both hands. He turned his body fully to face her. "Look, about what happened last night. It was a complete accident, I swear! I didn't mean to go that far in when I- "

Mikoto slammed her hand on his mouth to silence him while letting out a hiss that could have been a 'shhhhhh'. She glanced around her, at everyone staring at them. Fucking great, the dumb blond went and made a scene. There was no way out of this without some kind of rumor going around. She noticed his eyes widening in understanding as he too looked back at the class.

Taking her hand back she looked straight ahead at the board. "After class, Training Ground 13. Be there, and be ready."

Naruto nodded as he went back to his relaxed leaning position. The rest of the class went back to their original topics. They knew better than to start a rumor about Mikoto in the same room as her. But when they get out for lunch, it would be a whole different matter…

Mikoto sat there waiting for the instructor to arrive, only about a minute and a half now. Iruka was quite predictable. He liked to time things perfectly. To pass the time she glanced at her left hand and occasionally fisted it. The hand that had just touched the same place her lips did last night. '_Damn it, stop thinking about that!'_

This was going to be a really long day.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, sat in his large office doing a deceptively small stack of papers. The stack never seems to increase or decrease in size no matter how much he signs, a clever seal array mad it so. After skimming the current document he looked to the left side of his desk where he had had a new computer system installed. He stared at the screen as he flickered through archives of reports and data before he pulled up a calculation program he had already been using earlier. Punching in some numbers until he found a set that gave him satisfactory results he turned back to his paperwork and wrote down the numbers before signing them. Doubling back to the computer he similarly added the numbers to the spreadsheet he had open.

Looking up from his work of balancing the entire villages budget and divvying out budget cuts and increases he addressed his sudden visitor. The one that seemed to have appeared into the room from nowhere, with no door or window being opened.

"Hello Jiraya, back from your trip to visit our dear friend the Daimyo? Bring me any souvenirs?"

Jiraya plopped down into one of the four seats placed in front of the Hokage's desk. "Just got back this morning, dropped in on the brat. Found out the kid didn't know about his old man's vault room."

Hiruzen placed his glasses onto the table and grabbed his pipe. "Really now? I could have sworn I mentioned it to him…No matter, he knows about it now. Now, what do your friends in the court have to say?"

Jiraya leaned further back into the chair and linked his hands behind his head. "Apparently the head cheese is going to be having his niece staying with him now. With his sister and brother in-law gone the poor girls got nowhere to go. A nice way to step up a bit in the world. Sweetest thing in the world too, wouldn't mind visiting again some time. She's a looker that's for sure."

Hiruzen nodded as he blew a smoke ring into the air. "Yes, I remember meeting her a few years back. A darling girl from what I remember, she never seemed to let her parents' wealth get to her like so many noble children. I have high hopes for her in the future."

Jiraya nodded and pushed himself up from his chair and went to the small drinks table against the side wall and poured himself a small glass. "Yes, but apparently not all is right with the world. When the Daimyo announced that he would hold a party to celebrate his niece coming to stay with him and as another mourning party for the girl's parents rumor mills have been circulating with some dark stuff."

The Hokage held his pipe from his mouth. "You don't mean an attack do you? On the Daimyo's castle?"

Jiraya nodded, taking a sip from his drink and settling back into the chair. "Yeah, just the normal threat stuff, but with the fact that they never did find out who off-ed the parents the Daimyo doesn't want to take chances. I'm here to submit his request for a formal mission, doesn't matter the rank, only the age. He wants ninja close to the girl's age so they can keep close without sticking out. The Guardians' attention will be focused on him and key members of his court. He wants the strongest group we have that is within a year older or younger of the girl to protect her. The party is next weekend, wants to meet the team by next Friday at the latest."

The Sandaime took a puff of his pipe as he digested this news. "How old was she again?"

Jiraya finished off his drink in one swallow. "She's eighteen now."

.,.,.,.,.,

It was at around four pm that Naruto arrived at the training grounds that he believed would most likely be his grave site within the next hour. If that. He had taken his time getting out of the KHA, believing that he could convince his executioner that it was to keep up appearances rather than rushing here. He normally chatted with multiple groups of fellow trainees; with him being well known and easy to get along with many accepted him into their conversations when he drifted their way. It was much stranger for anyone not to, really.

Noticing that said executioner was absent from the field he plopped down against a group of large rocks. This particular training ground was normally favored by ninja that are training their fire techniques, due to its lack of flammable foliage that is normally present throughout every other training ground in fire country.

Now that he thought about it, this place may have been like the rest of the training grounds at one point in the past. But with this being fire country there may have been an overzealous fire user that burnt down all the trees and foliage within a mile radius. Or it was just that it was so close to the Uchiha compound. He was betting on the second one, though the two options could be one and the same from what he could imagine of a clan of Mikotos.

"Maybe that whole clan had a rivalry against the log…"

Whatever. He reached into his vest's pocket and pulled out the Rasengan book, intent to at least get a better idea on what the technique was all about. He still didn't understand what water balloons were supposed to do to help learn the technique. His father was defiantly…unique.

Half an hour later, and three chapters down, the black haired bringer of his demise wandered into the field. Sighing, Naruto placed the small book back in its pocket and stood up. He didn't walk towards her. Why speed up his death sentence?

When she finally was within two meters of him she stopped and crossed her arms, placing most of her weight on one leg. "So nice of you to make it. I wasn't sure you'd show up. I just got done snuffing out rumors about us from your stupid comment this morning that you spouted within hearing range of Ino of all people. Do you realize how many people that girl had already spread it around to by the time classes even let out? Wanna guess? No? Well, for your information it was seven. And each of those seven spread it to at least one more."

Naruto nodded and looked down and rubbed his head. "Yeah, I kinda figured that would happen. Just another thing I have to work on…So, about last night…"

Mikoto huffed and looked to the sky. "I would like to forget about it, both of us to really."

Naruto let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in. "Whew, really, um, yeah. That's probably for the best. We're just friends, and I took a joke too far. Forget it? Right. Done."

Mikoto looked at him and uncrossed her arms to place her hands on her hips. "Don't think you're getting off that easily though. Despite what you may think, that was my first. And I expect you to pay me back for stealing it."

Naruto laughed nervously and shuffled his weight from one leg to the other. "Uh, like dinner again? That's fine, I guess. I just got paid so I guess I could probably afford it. Where to? The Thousand Crane? Most expensive place I can think of here in Konoha. Anything to get us back to how we were before the incident that I have already forgotten about. It was kinda cool to hang out with you that night."

Mikoto hummed and looked out at the distance of the training field. "That too, but there is one more thing I want from you that I have always wanted to see for some time now." She looked back at him in the eyes.

Naruto's eyes widened when he though he saw her eyes turn evil again. "Hey, whoa. Um that was my first one too, that I stole. No idea how that works, but no matter what you say I will not go running through the streets naked. I'd rather not have a misinterpretation of my dad's nickname 'The Yellow Flash'!"

The black eyed girl looked at him strangely before letting out a small chuckle. "No, no matter how amusing it would be I won't have you doing that. Thanks for the idea though, I'll have to keep it in mind for the next time you are in my debt. All I wanted was for you to show me a fire technique."

Naruto was relieved, scared, then confused. "Uh, but you probably know a lot more about fire techniques than I do."

Mikoto shook her head. "I don't need you to teach me a technique, just for you to show me one. I want to see what a fire technique looks like when you are using your full power. That is why I had you meet me here. Nothing to become collateral damage within over a mile radius."

Naruto looked at her, then out at the field, then back. "Huh. So those rumors about you and fire were true…Fine then. So I just show you my most destructive fire technique on full blast and take you out to dinner? Sounds like a reasonable price for not killing me. I'm not going to be going furry though, the Anbu that follow me usually get nervous when I do that. Then the old man normally calls me into his office to berate me for not doing it in a sealed training quarters like I'm supposed to. It's been a while since I've used a fire technique, last year I think, so I'm gonna be a bit rusty. That fine?"

The girl nodded, a bit too quickly to hide her excitement, and jumped back to the edge of the training grounds with her bloodline active to get the most out of the experience.

Naruto just sighed again and turned to face out to the barren field. '_You heard me Mrs. Definition-of-Overpowered. Keep out of this one.'_

The voice in his mind chuckled. '_Pot calling the kettle black, hun.'_ Then he could feel the energy draw back a bit from him as a sign that it was held in check.

Naruto took in deep breaths and let them out slowly, trying to get the feeling for releasing a fire technique again. After two minutes of practice he signaled he was ready with a thumbs up. Even from where she stood, a good eighty yards from the teen Mikoto could feel Naruto's chakra skyrocket to levels she had never felt before. Now she realized how much he usually held back against her and the validity of his argument the other night. It felt like it was at least fifteen times stronger where she was standing than what she normally felt going up against him. If she was standing as close as she was when they normally start their spars and Naruto usually is using his presence technique it would feel closer to thirty times or more.

Even the ground was shaking, and the blond hadn't done anything yet.

He rushed through the five hand signs needed for this technique and took in as big of a breath as he could. As soon as he finished the tiger seal he let the jutsu fly. "**Katon: Fire Dragon Flame Missile!"**

The blast of the over powered technique was enormous. Tall enough to touch the top of the Hokage tower, wide enough to fill an entire street, and long enough to stretch over two city blocks. Gradually the stream of flame got smaller, more focused but no less powerful than it started. The now white hot flame expelled in a four foot diameter stream five feet above the ground and reached even farther than before.

Letting the technique go after keeping it up for as long as he could he slumped his shoulders and head and breathed heavily. He noticed Mikoto walk up next to him with wide eyes as she took in the damage. All of the ground and rocks in front of them was black, but where the focused line of flame traveled above the ground was easily seen due to the path being red hot and melting.

Mikoto patted him on the shoulder. "Got to hand it to you blondie, didn't expect you to have the control to focus the fire that much."

Naruto chuckled, slightly out of breath. "I've had a bit of practice with that technique. The old man taught me it when he and my godfather taught me the Shadow Clones to make up for not being able to make the normal illusion clones. He said it would be another type of control training for me. But after a while I just couldn't focus it any more so I left it where it was and moved on to focusing on other control techniques. Old man Hokage can make that thing pencil thin. Haaaaa, man that takes a lot out of me. You happy now?"

Mikoto looked back at him as she deactivated her bloodline. She shook a little at the memory of what just happened. "Very. Now all you have to do is pay for all my food when you take me to The Thousand Cranes on Friday."

Naruto's shoulders slumped even more. "You're going to bankrupt me, aren't you?"

Mikoto chuckled darkly. "Depends on how much money you've got in the bank, now doesn't it?" She turned and walked off. "See you tomorrow. Don't steal my seat anymore either."

"Yeah, yeah. That one's a freebie." The blond grumbled as he slowly walked back to his home so he could get some chap stick and a glass of water. "Damn fire techniques…"

.,.,.,.,.,.,

Ino looked at the women sitting around the table of her family home as she walked in from the store front. All of them were enjoying a drink and talking to at least one other. Sakura caught her eye and placed her cup down and faced her, prompting the others to do the same. "Hello girls, so nice to see you all again. It feels like I just saw you all an hour ago." Her classmates laughed at the small joke.

"So, now that we are out of the watchful eye of the Sharingan, why don't we start what we all came here to do?" She looked at all of them as they nodded. "Plan on how to get the two densest people in existence to realize that they need to stop pussyfooting around and get together."

Hinata giggled as she raised her glass, prompting the others to do the same, where they all clinked together. "I saw Naruto-kun on my way here in the training fields, Mikoto was heading in that direction when I passed her a bit later."

Ami nodded, taking a sip of her orange soda. "While I was browsing at an accessories shop I couldn't help but notice a bright light coming from there. It felt like Naruto's chakra. If I felt it from all the way across town I'm sure the rest of you did. My guess is that Mikoto tried to kill him and he overpowered some technique to distract her. He never was one for control, and she seemed to be mad at him this morning."

Sakura hummed as she placed her head on one of her hands and the elbow on the table. "I have to agree that that sounds likely to be true. Did you guys hear what Naruto said this morning to her? I could have sworn I heard him say 'About what happened last night…It was a complete accident! I didn't mean to go that far in!'"

Kimiko put her glass down and looked at Sakura in amazement. "No shit, really? But that could be looked at a number of ways. Who's to say it's about what we want it to be about? I have a hard time believing Naruto of all people starting a relationship with Mikoto. Hell, he didn't even know about Hinata liking him for so long."

Hinata blushed and took a sip of her drink to stall for her blush to go away. "Ahem, yes, well that is beside the point. I have been able to move on and am quite happy now."

Ino chuckled and leaned forward in her chair. "Yes, happy with Kiba are you? Hopefully he'll calm down a bit now that he's got himself a girlfriend."

Hinata 'Eep'-ed and denied it fervently while the other girls laughed, agreeing.

Ino leaned back in her chair. "Back on topic though, I agree with Kimy. While the two have seemed to be getting closer to each other I don't think anything like _that_ happened last night. Speaking of which, Hinata, weren't you with them last the other night? Notice anything, or were you too busy walking your dog?"

Hinata was still blushing and polished off her glass of iced tea. "He's not my dog. And no, both of them were actually very quiet…now that I think about it, that is a bit odd. Naruto is rarely quiet, only when he's sleeping in class with Shikamaru that I know of. Or in a fight, where he only taunts his opponent occasionally. Or eating ramen." Give it up for the girl that has a history of previously being a borderline stalker of the guy. She knows her stuff.

Sakura refilled her glass with sweet tea. "Their explanation about showing up together and Naruto owing her was a bit sketchy too. What could he owe her to get him to drag her to a restaurant in a social setting and pay for all her food? It looked too much like a disguised date to me, whether they realized it or not."

Ami idly stirred her glass with a straw. "Little miss Uchiha has a pretty big pride issue, maybe she took offense of blondie so blatantly blowing off their match the other day. She might have convinced herself that he owed her for not going all out against her, rubbed her the wrong way or something. _I _wouldn't want him to not hold back against me in a fight though, that presence technique alone is kinda hard for me to deal with alone. And knowing him like we do, Naruto probably just agreed to it anyway. He said something like 'Somehow that's what ended up happening', right?"

The power of the female gossiper's minds is truly formidable. In less than half an hour they had deduced a pretty close image of what had happened from two sentences and what they already knew about the targets. Now if only the Hokage could convince all the civilian housewives to become ninja for just this purpose…

Ino flicked her ponytail back over her shoulder. "That's all well and good, but what really matters is what we're going to do about it."

And let the scheming commence.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

It was now Thursday, with yesterday's conversation with Jiraya still circling his head along with thoughts of what to do about it. The aging village leader stared at his available forces list. No one was available. There were a few that were over five years older than eighteen, but that group has always had trouble keeping nice with the customers. Not the group to send around the Daimyo for the entirety of Fire Country.

This left him with very few options, either recall a team from a mission which would no doubt make a dent in their trustworthiness when word got out. Or he could improvise.

He looked at the folder in front of him, containing KHA's class records of the graduating class. In another folder next to the first one was a list of standards the instructors were to cover and the grades of each student when an instructor covered a subject. This folder was updated bi-weekly.

Hiruzen sighed, already feeling the headache he knew was coming. Grunting as he stood from his plush chair and picking up those two folders and one more along the way, this one being a red folder with gold trim. A bit eccentric, but all missions by the fire Daimyo were housed in such a folder. There were many of them in the mission history room, most from the current Daimyo's mother and her demon cat.

Heading down the hall and into a large room already filled with people around a long wooden table he took his seat at the head of the table and placed all three folders down. The small amount of chatter in the room quieted down as all of the council members recognized the red and gold folder on top of the pile in front of their leader.

The Hokage accepted a glass of water from an assistant before addressing the assembled people. "Good afternoon. I have called this meeting due to the Daimyo requesting a mission which asks for a specific aged team of ninja. The closest team in age that is available is team thirty five, which if you all will remember was the one that ended up breaking the legs of the person they were supposed to guard and placing in a rather demented Genjutsu. They have been placed on demolitions since as a punishment and still require one more month before they are allowed to take normal missions again. All other teams that fit the description are away on missions and are not expected to be back by the time the Daimyo needs them."

The council mumbled to themselves and their neighbors as they got a grasp of the situation. Only the Ninja half of the council was in session for this meeting due to the contents of it. Hyuuga Hiashi spoke up after a minute of quiet discussion. "Could we not replace a team that is out on a mission with another to clear up the space for them to go on this mission?"

The council nodded in agreement, that seemed like a reasonable idea. Keyword here is "seemed."

The Hiruzen nodded. "Of course Hyuuga-san, that is a possibility. Very well then, let us choose those teams now to save us some time." He pulled out a rather large scroll from his sleeve and gave the bottom end a flick, rolling it out along the thirty foot conference table. The scroll was so long that it fell off the other end of the table and hit the wall, only half unrolled. "Now, which teams do you suppose we should substitute out?"

The entirety of the ninja counsel looked on with slightly widened eyes, now having a much better idea of the size of Konoha's forces.

The Professor chuckled slightly as he whipped the scroll a bit, causing it to roll up quickly like a projector screen. Placing it back in its hidden pocket he looked back at the counsel. "As you can see, that is not as easy as it looks. But I came here today with a bit of an idea that I believe may be beneficial for us. As you know the KHA has a requirement that every student must complete at least one D-ranked mission a week. So far there have been no problems with this, only positives. I say that we institute a new requirement for the final year of students attending. Require the graduating class to successfully complete a higher level mission, done in teams to get them used to doing so in the future. We can also use this as a test bed to see who will work well together in the long run."

The council discussed this amongst themselves for at least a half hour. There were already so many requirements to graduate from the KHA, adding more like this one was pushing it. Many of them mentioned that the graduates were supposed to become Genin when they graduated. The counter argument was that these students were doing more than the average amount of training than the previous generations of Genin because they didn't have to focus so much on doing missions. They could be classified as Special Genin compared to the previous generations.

After the discussions ended the Hokage called for a vote to implement this into the program. It won out with a 10-2 vote. Mitokado Homura settled back in his chair as the voting ended. "Now that that is out of the way, who did you have in mind to send?"

Shimura Danzo spoke up next. "I would like to send Uchiha Mikoto on this mission. It would be a good chance to show the Daimyo that the Sharingan's power is still just as potent as it was before the Itachi Incident."

The Sandaime looked down at the table in thought. '_I cannot disagree with this, as it would be a very good chance to do so, showing the Daimyo the Sharingan could be beneficial. If we are going to be showing off the Uchiha's power, we might as well show Naruto-kun's as well. I believe he is strong enough for this information to be out in the open. We are the only village that has yet to announce to the other nations that we have a Jinchuriki. But now that the top two of the class are on the mission who else do we send? Should I balance it out with a lower ranking student like we did in the past? No, this is a possible attack on the Daimyo's castle. I suppose I could send Kimiko with them, those two work well together. Now it is only a matter of who to send with them as a Jonin leader.'_

"I have decided to place Uchiha Mikoto, Manami Kimiko and Uzumaki Naruto on the mission. Now we must decide on who is to lead them."

Inuzuka Tsume spoke up from her seat at the table. "Wouldn't it be a good idea to send your son with them? He just finished his time as a Guardian himself didn't he?"

Aburame Shibi spoke monotonously, only muffled slightly due to his tall coat collar. "The logic of this is clear, I support this."

"Very well." The Sandaime nodded. "He is scheduled to be returning within the next two days, he will have just under a week off. I can use this time to inform the school of the changes and let the team know to prepare. I will make the announcement on Monday then. Dismissed."

.,.,.,.,.,

Naruto looked at himself in the mirror as he tried to make his hair do _anything_ other than what it did naturally. He was slightly disturbed, not by his hair since that always happens, but by how much effort he was putting into this night. He may be a bit dense but he recognized something. That he was taking out a woman that he had kissed, accidentally mind you, to a fancy restaurant and paying for anything. Now, this may be his first time doing anything like this but it sure as hell seemed like a date to him.

Was he supposed to treat it like one? Was Mikoto expecting it? Unlikely, but possible. Women were hard to understand like that.

What _was_ he expected to do then? Just sit there and take it? Eat a completely silent dinner? That could be expected. Mikoto probably knew that that would be as close to torture as tonight could get. Besides actual torture.

He could just act like he normally does, but that is a bit out of place for the restaurant they were going to. The Thousand Cranes restaurant was a bit snooty, but nice. If you didn't dress up then you didn't get in, if you cause a big scene you get banned from returning. He even had to get a reservation, damn lucky that he did too with it being a Friday night and all. Date night, as most people call it.

He checked himself in the mirror again and ran his hand along his jaw line, checking his shaving job. He had on the only formal clothes he owned: a blue button up shirt, black slacks and a black suit jacket that he kept unbuttoned. No ties, just a few buttons undone up top and a priceless gem necklace. Hell, he'd go gay for himself if it was physically possible.

Checking his watch he noticed that he still had some time left before he was supposed to meet his d… '_Not a date, kinda friends? Acquaintances? Ow-ee and ower? Hmm, whatever._'

Checking to make sure he has everything and that he had brought enough money to buy a full refrigerator and freezer worth of food he headed out into the night. As he walked he passed the Yamanaka shop, which made him pause. Do I get her flowers and stuff? Might as well, better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Walking across the street and opening the door he heard the bell above the door jingle. There were no other customers in the store except for him, which he found odd on a night generally labeled as date night. He was slightly relieved to see Ino behind the counter and not her dad, T&I ninja always managed to put him on edge. And then he realized that it was _Ino _behind the counter. No matter what he did or what he said some twisted form of the truth was going to be in circulation by tomorrow.

'_Just gotta bite the bullet and get it over with. Deal with the backlash later.'_

"Hey Ino, what's up?"

The long haired blond looked around the vase she was arranging flowers in she gave him a small wave. "Nothing much, just manning the shop while my parents are out. My, my, my, look at you. What's got you all dressed up with nowhere to go?"

Naruto chuckled and looked down at his clothes. "I don't look bad do I? I'm supposed to meet a friend I've known for a long time at a restaurant tonight. I was hoping you could help me out. See, I have no idea if I'm supposed to bring flowers or not. We're just friends is all."

Ino was glad he didn't seem to notice her slight pause as she understood the truth behind his evasive statement. In the back of her head she was rubbing her hands together evilly. "Of course I can help you out Naruto. How about a small bouquet then, just of some flowers with no real meaning that look good together?"

Naruto nodded in relief. "Yes, thanks Ino. You're the best."

"Of course I am silly. Now, let's see…let's start off with some pink gillyflower,"-bonds of affection- "some primrose,"-young love- "hmm, what else to add…ooh I know, how about some gardenias"-secret love-"and daffodils."-unrequited love-"Might as well throw in some peppermint,"-warm feelings-"which makes them smell better. So, how does it look?" Ino held out her creation for Naruto to look at.

Naruto shrugged. "Looks like a bunch of plants to me, but I don't really know much about flowers. Seems fine, I'll take it. Thanks again Ino."

"No problem, us blonds have got to stick together." She waited for him to pay for the flowers then leave. Taking out her cell phone she hit a speed dialed number. "Sakura? It's me, Ino. Listen, operation 'Black and Blue' just got bumped up to stage three. Blue just came in here to get some flowers for Black. Says they're meeting at a restaurant. Let the others know."

.,.,.,.,

After a quick walk he arrived at his destination, the front gates of the Uchiha District. He paused at the large door to readjust the flowers in this left arm, he hoped he wasn't crushing them or anything, was he supposed to bring a vase? Ino didn't mention anything about vases. Man was he ever regretting never watching a chick flick in his life, it all seemed a bit unfair to him. So many possible ways to fail. Not that he cared if he failed or anything, or that there was anything to fail with Mikoto. Just saying.

After taking a breath he pushed the gate open, the proceeded to feel like an idiot. He forgot that her house was still a few blocks away, and here he was getting nervous. He marched down the deserted street and up to her door and knocked, not giving himself the time to second guess himself again.

He could hear heels clacking against a hard floor inside getting closer. This was it, play it cool Naruto. You got this. The door opened.

'_I ain't got this.'_

"Y-Yo Mikoto, lookin good. Ready for an all expense paid for night at the most expensive restaurant I could find?" He hoped he didn't sound nervous to her, wishing the rumor about her being able to smell fear wasn't true.

Mikoto was standing in her doorway securing a small stud earring on her left ear to match her right. She had her hair straight and down, wearing a calf length red shoulderless dress with a strip of fabric going around her neck to hold the dress up. She then grabbed a wool coat and then proceeded to stare at the flowers under his arm. He fumbled to hand them to her, nervous if he should or not.

She continued to stare at them while she held them. "What are these?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I don't really know, I just picked them up along the way. The clerk said they didn't really mean anything so they should be good for situations like this."

Mikoto sighed and placed the flowers in a vase on a table not far from the door. "You got these from Ino didn't you?" It wasn't really a question since she already knew the answer. "Naruto, all of these flowers have a meaning similar to love. Ino pulled a fast one on you. If she gave you these as a prank then she probably guessed they were for me. Meaning that I have more gossip to clean up on Monday."

Naruto paled at the news, silently swearing to get the blonde florist back for this. '_Us blonds have got to stick together my ass. I'll stick her to the damn ceiling with crazy glue.'_

"O-oh, uh, my bad, I guess, again. I'll talk to her too, tomorrow."

Mikoto shook her head as she closed her door. "No, from current evidence all you seem to do is add to the rumors. I will have to take care of it when I see her next, and anyone else she convinced. Let's just get going, did you make sure to bring a check with the price of your soul on it?"

Naruto chuckled, glad the atmosphere had lightened. He wasn't really nervous now, as long as he didn't fuck up like last time things should be fine.

.,.,.,.,

The restaurant the pair was heading to was quite a ways to travel by foot, prompting the pair to start up an awkward conversation of nothing. Utter silence. It didn't help that it seemed like the whole village was standing outside their homes and shops and proceeded to stare at them and whisper. If it wasn't physically impossible for Ino to do such a thing so fast Naruto would have blamed it on her. Poor guy didn't realize that this is Yamanaka Ino, the Gossip Queen. Nothing gossip related is impossible for her.

Mikoto was already regretting the decision to have him meet her at her home and not just at the restaurant. It would have saved her a lot of trouble in the future. Mikoto was walking beside her blond companion as they rounded the final turn to the most expensive eating establishment in Konoha, endorsed by the Akimichi of course.

Naruto played nice by opening the door for her and taking her coat, then walking past her to talk to the greeter and having her coat stored for when they leave. After confirming their reservation the waiter showed them to a private room with a low table. But after closer inspection it showed that there was no floor underneath the table, leaving room for people to sit on the floor while still having the posture of a non-backed chair. The décor of the place was what she expected. Very oriental and flashy. All of the waitresses and waiters were dressed in kimonos to keep the feel of the place the same throughout. There was a geisha that the pair noticed playing a shamisen, with the music somehow carrying throughout the building.

Mikoto noticed the laminated menu sitting in front of her and picked it up. The menu was rather small, with there only being choices on which sets to order and drinks on the back. The lack of dessert on the menu led her to believe that a separate list would be given to them near the end of their visit when all the rest of the food had been served. She also noticed that there were no prices listed next to the food, to show that this truly was a 5-star restaurant. Most preferred to keep to the saying of 'if you have to ask you can't afford it.'

Each of the sets had a different number of courses, and all of them looked quite good. Except for the one with duck as a main course. Mikoto never had liked duck, chicken and turkey were fine but duck just never sat well with her.

After sitting and perusing the menu for a while a formal waitress opened the sliding door and sat in a seiza position while she pulled a pad of paper and a pen from the fold of her obi. "What would you two like to drink?"

Mikoto turned the menu over to the back where the drinks were. Most of the page was filled with alcohol, but there was a selection of non spiked drinks. "I shall have a raspberry iced tea."

Naruto turned his menu over as well. "Hmm, I'll have hot sake please. Two cups, just in case my friend here wants some later."

The waitress wrote down the orders before looking back up. "Does either of you know what set you would like to order?"

Mikoto looked at her with a bit of confusion. "You aren't going to check for I.D.'s?"

The waitress somehow giggled in a way that seemed high class. "Oh, no dear. Everyone in the village knows that you both are eighteen. You are both quite famous for various reasons. In ninja villages eighteen is the age limit. Now, have you decided yet or would you like for me to ask again when I return with your drinks?"

Naruto suggested they be given more time to decide. The waitress nodded and left, closing the sliding door behind her.

Mikoto eyed the blond over the top of her menu. "Did you know she wouldn't check for I.D.?"

Naruto looked up at her, eyes bright with a bit of amusement. "Silly girl, my godparents are the biggest drinkers in fire country. Jiraya may not look like it but he can pack the stuff away just as well as Tsunade can. I've been drinking since the day I turned eighteen. I have a bit of an edge over everyone else though. My little friend won't let anything impair my senses or judgment. So don't worry about having to drag my drunken ass home any time soon."

"I didn't know Tsunade was your godmother, I thought only Jiraya was your godparent."

Naruto placed his menu down and took a sip of the pre placed glass of water. "Yeah, though I see her even less than I do Jiraya. She shows up about once a year, as opposed to once a month. She's the one that gave me this necklace. Worth enough to buy a whole mountain and the gold mine underneath it. Has a special property that somehow helps Jinchuriki deal with the backlash of using a bijuu's chakra. Apparently this one was originally the Shodaime's."

Mikoto looked at the necklace hanging from his neck. Such a small stone, but worth so much. She had to look back at her menu when she started noticing how the gem nestled in between the definition of his pectorals showed off by his open collar.

A minute later the waitress showed back up with their drinks, then sat back into seiza to wait for the food orders. Naruto looked back at his menu to make sure he had the set's name right before ordering, Mikoto ended up ordering the same. For a fancy place like this a set called the Sumo Combo was a bit of a stretch, with a main dish of tenderloin steak with seven different courses to fill you up in between and one after for dessert.

The waitress smiled at the two and left, telling them to press the button on the side of the table to summon a waitress if they needed anything and she wasn't around.

Mikoto sipped her drink while she watched Naruto down his first saucer of alcohol. He didn't make any faces or choke on the drink so his story about drinking before seemed to be true. Naruto caught her glance.

"Did you want to try a bit of it? Promise I won't take advantage of you if you get plastered."

Mikoto rolled her eyes and waved her hand for him to pass her a cup. "That is hardly my concern. Even while drunk I could still mop the floor with you."

She held the small glass under her nose and breathed in the smell of it. It was soft but had definite bite to it, kind of like an odd spice. The wasabi of drinks, that's how she described it anyway. She glanced at the blond again, and he showed her that he could down a cup in one shot.

Placing the cup to her lips and tilting her head back sharply she copied him. She regretted it soon after. She coughed and sputtered, placing a hand to her throat and the cup back down. She pushed the cup back over to him and shook her head.

"That's enough of that. God, I can still feel it burning. It's worse than when I first learned how to do a fire technique. How can you stand it?"

Naruto shrugged and poured his third cup. "It's an acquired taste really, you have to want to like it to enjoy it. After a while the burn doesn't hurt as much as it feels relaxing. I bet if you try another one after you've had something to eat you might like it."

Mikoto took a sip from her glass of sweet raspberry tea. "I'll see how I feel about it after the first few courses."

Speaking of, right then the sliding door opened showing their waitress with a large tray carrying plates of salad, their first course. After placing the plates in front of her customers the waitress bowed then walked back out.

After quietly eating a good portion of the salad, neither wanting to spoil their appetite for the main course that was still six waves of food away, Mikoto was feeling a bit braver. So she opted to try her hand at sake again. This time she only sipped from the cup instead of downing it all in one go. It was a much more enjoyable experience. After a few sips she could feel a warmth spread from her stomach slowly.

When the waitress made her next round with the bowls of miso soup Mikoto asked for her own flask of hot sake.

.,.,.,.,.,

It was finally time of them to bring out the main dishes, but Naruto was already starting to feel the first signs of being full. He leaned back with his palms on the floor as their waitress placed the plates in front of them and took the previous round of food away.

"Oh man, it looks so good. But I don't know if I can eat it all." Naruto moaned as he rubbed his stomach.

The woman across from him was defiantly starting to pass the border of tipsy and into the realm of drunk. She was only on her second flask, but it was her first time drinking so he'd give her a bit of slack when he makes fun of her later. Her face was flushed and she couldn't seem to sit still, having taken a habit of twiddling with her chop sticks and was swaying side to side slightly.

"You know, I've always wondered about you. What's it like having a voice in your head? Does it try to sway you to the dark side with promises of cookies?"

Naruto looked up at her as he chewed his first piece of steak, it was damn good. He also noticed her speech pattern changing, becoming more laid back and cracking jokes. "I'm used to it. The Kyuubi doesn't usually bug me too much, but she does like to distract me during tests and force me to have headaches whenever she feels I offended her or something. She's not really evil per se, just…excitable." Holy shit, what did they cook this in, fucking butter? So good.

Mikoto paused with a piece of meat just out of reach of her mouth. "She? I've heard you talk about the Kyuubi before, you always say he."

Naruto took another drink of sake. "Not really, it's everyone else that called her a he. I just let them because it'd be a hassle to try and change everyone's mind. And it was funny to see an all powerful being trash around in my mind for being called a man. Since then she has taken to keeping a human form in my mind, not letting me forget that she is in fact a woman and has breasts. Was a bit of a hassle to get her to wear clothes though."

Mikoto put her chopsticks down and finished chewing her meat. It was very good. "So let me get this straight. You have a naked- "

"Not naked anymore, she wears something like a Chinese dress now."

"-woman in your head? Does she have long red hair and nine bushy tails with ears on the top of her head?"

"Haha, no, that's another misconception about her. Her hair is actually silver, with a hint of blue. She said her fur looked red to everyone cuz she was covered in the blood of her enemies. Everything else you said is true though, nine bushy tails and ears on the top of her head. No matter what I said she won't change those, even though I know she can."

Mikoto tried to get her suddenly lazy mind to imagine what this new image of the Kyuubi no Yoko must look like. She took another shot of her sake. "Huh, that's a bit to think on later. Can she use your senses and stuff? To listen in on the world and see through your eyes?"

Naruto shuddered, before lowering his head. When he looked up his pupils were long slits, and when he smiled at her his teeth were decidedly longer and sharper. "**Yes I can little girl… **Grah, stop doing that already. Cough, I hate it when she changes my voice. Makes my throat feel weird and scratchy."

Mikoto didn't stop chewing as she watched his eyes and teeth slowly recede back to normal. She idly wondered if that hurts. She finished off her second flask of sake, and then called for another. She was feeling warm all over, and things she realized she should care about really just didn't matter anymore. She was just starting to think up ways to mess with Naruto's mind, but she realized that it was a bit hard to think straight. Then the ice cream dessert came, one scoop was white. She smiled, that made things so much easier.

.,.,.,.,.,

It was a battle of epic proportions and Naruto was running low on ammo. He had just taken a critical hit to the groin when his opponent made half of her spoon disappear. It was super effective.

So he bowed out of the battle of wits and asked for the check, laughing with his opponent all the while. It was the most he had ever heard her laugh and the most he had seen her smile. He was already planning more outings involving Mikoto and booze, and maybe a few other friends to prove she isn't always up tight.

He helped her stumble to the front desk to retrieve her coat and assisted her in putting it on. It was a bit of a challenge doing so because she had to grab onto him for support when she inevitably stumbled from standing still. She was a bit more wasted than she seemed when she was sitting down.

He guided her out of the building, promising the staff to come again some time when he recovers from bankruptcy, and into the dark empty streets. It should only take him about twenty or so minutes to guide Mrs. Tipsy hanging off his arm to her home. "So, you've asked a lot of questions about me tonight. I think it's my turn now."

Mikoto was getting a bit too friendly with his arm, occasionally rubbing his bicep with her hands and face. "Shoot batter, batter, swing."

He idly wondered if he'd even get coherent answers from the girl. "How come you still live in your family home, all segregated from the rest of the village? The property taxes alone would have me moving."

Mikoto has rubbing his hand in between hers now, as if giving him the warmth she felt throughout her body. "It's my parents home, even if I watched everyone I cared about die there I still feel close to my family by being there." That was an amazingly non-babbled sentence. "Besides, the civies pay for most of it."

Naruto sighed. "Glad to see our tax money going to good use."

Mikoto giggled at him as she pulled him past her gate and fumbled with her key at the door. Eventually she just thrust the key ring at him and leaned against the wall. Naruto took a minute, having to try every key since the owner wasn't being very forthcoming with the information of which one it was the right key. He was about to tell her good night at her doorstep when his conscience got the better of him. He would stay just until he knew she was laying down and not sick all over herself.

He tugged her inside and asked where her room was, all she said was the master room. He guessed that that was probably upstairs and at the end of some hall. He first wrestled with her to get the coat off of her back so he could hang it on a hook near the front door before he had to carry her up the stairs because she looked nauseous just looking up them.

Reaching the top with her still in his arms he looked to the left, down the longer hallway, and headed down it. Sure enough a door at the end of the hall opened up to a large bedroom. He left the lights off due to his experience with his godparents being in similar states. They always complained when he turned on the lights.

He sat her down on the bed and took off her high heels, it took him longer than he thought it would because the clasp was rather small and her legs were in his face a bit and distracting. After chucking the shoes to the side he tried to nudge her further up onto the bed but she would have none of it. "Change, dress is expensive."

He stood back and looked at her oddly. "I am not going to change your clothes for you; we're not quite that close."

Mikoto gave what she probably thought was a glare and held her arms out to him. "Just get me to my closet, over there." Spotting the door he pulled her up to her unsteady feet and guided her to it. She walked into the long closet and closed the door behind her.

"You going to be okay by yourself? Don't fall over now. I'm not coming in there even if you scream rape."

He heard her tell him to shut up from behind the door. A minute later she opened the door and walked out in a spaghetti strap top and short shorts. She held her arms out to him again and stood there.

He stood still too. "What? You can change yourself but you can't walk ten feet to your bed?"

Now she was pouting at him. He really wished he had brought a camera with him to capture these expressions. Never know when or if he'd see them again. He sighed and gave in, women and children were his kryptonite. "Fine, fine."

He picked her up again in a bridal carry and deposited her on her bed. As soon as she touched the sheets her face turned white and her cheeks puffed out a bit. "Oh nonononono! Don't do this here!"

He rushed to pick her up again and rushed her to the bathroom just outside her door. He had made it just in time, as soon as she was in front of the toilet she threw up all that expensive food he had just bought her. He sighed as he pulled her hair from her face and rubbed her back soothingly, idly aware that there was no bra strap. He made a clone to go fetch a glass of water for her when she finishes.

"Do you want to brush your teeth or something?"

Mikoto nodded and pushed herself away from the ivory throne and flushed it, grabbed a towel and quickly wiped at her face. When she was done Naruto put a hand under her arm and lifted her to lean against the sink. "Why do you have two tooth brushes? Any jealous boyfriends I should know about?"

Mikoto shook her head slowly and grabbed one of the toothbrushes and brushed her teeth and tongue to get the taste out of her mouth. "Kimiko likes to invade sometimes and stay the night."

When she was done the clone came back with the glass of water and a large salad mixing bowl which he placed on her bedside table and pulled the covers back before releasing its chakra and dispelling.

After carrying her back into the bedroom and placing her on the bed there was a bit of a problem. She had her arms around her neck and was not letting go. He cursed his luck for letting a cliché thing like this happening.

'_Here, let me help you with that.'_

"Huh?"

And then everything was clear for him to see, as if the lights were on. His blue eyes were glowing and slitted again. Oh man, she really isn't wearing a bra. And her shirt had ridden up somehow to expose the entirety of her stomach. And her legs were…

"You have perty eyes Ruto. Wanna see mine?"

Her black eyes flashed red. Naruto slumped on top of her. In her drunken state she had unwittingly cast a Genjutsu to knock him unconscious. She fell asleep not even fifteen seconds later.

.,.,.,.,.,

**Well I can see an awkward awakening on the horizon.**

**Who is plotting to attack the Daimyo's castle just to finish the job of wiping out a poor girls family?**

**What does the Gossip Brigade have in store Naruto and Mikoto?**

**How will a Naruto with a bit better control fair against learning the Rasengan?**

**More action guaranteed in the next chapter, look forward to it.**

**The Thousand Cranes restaurant is a real place, out in Hollywood. Though I hear they are closing. This was loosely based on my experience when I went there once, with the addition of the Naruto-verse of course.**

**It was my goal to push this chapter a bit so that the story got bumped up to the 20k mark, I just made it. Let's see if I can make the 40k mark next chapter, shall we?**

**~Dshadodragon**


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter 3

It was a bright Saturday morning in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The sun was bright and there were few clouds in the sky and none of them dark or foreboding, a typical end of summer/beginning of fall day. The wind was on the slow side, but it was constant, giving the village residents a welcome relief from the bright sun. This is what some would consider an ideal morning to wake up to, even if it is nearly eleven A.M.

But to a few, say someone with a headache that increases from sensitivity to light and a nauseous stomach that is grating on the back of the mind and causing the headache to worsen, this morning would have been better if someone had managed to turn off the sun.

Normally the effects of a hangover from three flasks of sake is nothing to write home about and ends before you can get up and make a pot of coffee. But to first time drinkers, and people of smaller stature and build, three flasks of the rice wine is enough to have you groaning and throwing up till the afternoon. But first you have to wake up.

And wake up she did. It was a slow going process of the mind this morning. It was a Saturday and she normally slept in later anyway. But due to her survival training the transition from sleeping to being awake and alert enough to fend off attackers is as fast as the time it takes for the heart to beat. The effects of a night of drinking are dragging this process along for nearly half an hour.

Uchiha Mikoto groaned as she lay on her right side on her bed as she recognized the bright light coming into her room and straight into her closed eyes. She reached out and grabbed the fabric of a pillow cover and dragged it to lie across the other side of her head, successfully blocking out the sunlight. She sighed in relief and shifted a bit as she tried to relax again so her stomach and headache would settle down.

It was a minute after she finally settled down and was on the edge of slipping into a light sleep that she recognized that something was…_off_. The first thing she noticed was that her bed and sheets smelled. It wasn't a bad smell, just that it stands out from what her fabric softener smells like.

With her mind waking back up after this first discovery she noticed that the pillow she placed over her head was a bit heavy. She also noticed that her other pillow she was laying on was a bit on the stiff side as well. She reached up again with her left hand and grabbed the pillow on top of her head to readjust it and stopped as soon as she grabbed more than just the fabric.

Her bleary eyes opened and saw nothing but black in front of her despite being hit in the face by sunlight not fifteen minutes ago. She stared ahead until her eyes got readjusted to the light. She noticed a new color in between the black. It was a dark color since in the room there were no lights hitting it, but it wasn't black. Her sheets weren't black anyway, at least not all of it.

Now forcing her sleepy hung over mind to process the details of where she was she felt the ache from earlier return with a vengeance. Forcing her way through the pain she focused on the pillow-that-probably-wasn't-her-pillow resting on the side of her head. She felt around where her hand landed. She couldn't fit her hand around half of it and it didn't compress nearly as much as a normal pillow should. She squeezed it a bit, feeling it. It was an odd feeling, but somehow familiar. Where had she felt that before?

She could almost hear the click in her mind as it came to her. It was muscle, encased in long sleeves. She felt at what she was laying her head on as well, which was definitely more muscle. With these pieces of information she recognized the scent of her bed and the other smell she had noticed, the scent of cologne.

'_Oh god, how drunk was I last night? I don't even remember much after dessert came.'_

Now that she definitely knew it was a man, or a really muscular woman that wears cologne, she was in bed with she was almost afraid to look up. Her mind took some solace in the fact that the man was fully clothed and she was in her pajamas. But that also made her recognize _how_ she knew he was clothed from the waist down since the covers blocked her vision. She had a leg slipped in between both of his, and her right hand had fallen asleep from being underneath him the whole night. She pulled both away from him and tried to regain feeling in her dominant hand.

Stealthily she tried to free herself from beside him so that she could assess the situation better. It was a bit easier than she expected, seeing as the man was out like a light and put up no resistance. She looked up to the man's face and her shock made her gasp out loud.

'_Oh dear_ _god, never again. No more alcohol ever again. Fate, what do you have against me? Wasn't losing my entire family in front of my eyes in one night enough?'_

Naruto lay there on his side with his arms outstretched in front of him. He did not move, she had to focus to even make sure he was breathing. It was then that the ending of last night came rushing back to her. She stumbled out of the room to take care of the nausea from the movement of sitting up and the shock resulted in. After brushing her teeth and gargling she rubbed a hand at her eyes and temples. She stood at the side of the bed and stared at its sole occupant. Then thought of her last memory of last night.

_"You have perty eyes Ruto. Wanna see mine?"_

She couldn't be angry with him, not really. It was her own drunk ass fault that this happened. Her mind played the most likely events to happen after she fell asleep. With Naruto knocked unconscious she must have pushed him off of her where he laid on his side. Sometime during the night she must have pulled the blankets over her, and by proxy him, and shuffled closer over the course of the night.

She sat down on the bed with a sigh. She started to remember bits and pieces of last night. Naruto had walked her home, while she rubbed up on him in her drunken wobbly state. Dragged her up her stairs, and carried her to her closet and back for her to change. He rushed her to the bathroom and held her hair back as she proceeded to throw up three hundred dollars worth of food that he had paid for. She idly thought of the saying about real love being able to hold your spouse's hair back and rub her back as she throws up. Dumb sayings, most of them are bull crap anyway.

He had then helped her to the bed where she thanked him by knocking him unconscious.

She scratched at her head irritably as she thought about the previous night, and about how awkward it was going to be when she wakes him up. She stared at his face as she tried to decide whether to wake him up now or later. He looked so relaxed. Not really happy, but content. It was a face she had never seen on him. Just from the way his sleeping face looked made her think of him as slightly less annoying than he normally is.

She sighed as she placed her hand on his shoulder and brought her other hand up to dispel the illusion on him.

His eyes snapped open, but he stayed still as a result of his own survival training. He pieced together where he was, she guesses, by the 'OH MY GOD' look on his face now. Decidedly less attractive, her mind pointed out. He suddenly disappeared from the bed, and she recognized the lamp from across the room that he had replaced himself with. At least it wasn't a log, ants and woodchips in her bed would annoy her to no end.

She slowly turned to see him backed up against a dark wall with his hands up in a pleading defense. He started to blabber apologies and explanations before she threw up a halting hand in his direction as she placed her other hand to her head and closed her eyes.

"Shut up already, I know. I remember what happened last night. I was drunk and nothing happened. You are free to keep your head and balls."

Naruto relaxed and noticed how she was swaying and holding her head.

"Hey, do you want me to get you something for your headache? Tylenol and coffee normally works for my godparents."

She glanced at him with one eye. "I don't drink coffee."

Naruto stepped closer to the center of the room. "Oh, well did you just want some water and Tylenol?"

Mikoto slowly nodded her head, then winced. "Bathroom, left mirror cabinet."

Naruto stepped out of the room, and into the bathroom and found the bottle of medicine easily enough. Then he headed down stairs and into the kitchen. It took him a minute of opening every cabinet before he found the glasses. He filled up the small glass with water from the refrigerator door before heading back up the stairs to find Mikoto to be exactly where he had left her.

She took the pills before handing him back the glass, which he placed on her nightstand. Then he sat down on the bed silently.

After nearly five minutes of awkward silence she finally snapped. "Are you going to be staying here the rest of the day or something?"

Naruto leaned back from her. "No, I'm just making sure you're okay. I heard that the first hangover is the worst for some people. And I don't just leave friends hanging like this. Besides, I have to go help Kiba and Shikamaru at the civilian Academy today for a D-rank mission I promised to help them out with later. I still have about two hours or so before I need to be there."

Mikoto waved her hand at him in a shooing motion. "I'm not going to die from a hangover, and I don't have anything left to throw up. I'll be fine. Besides, Ino was supposed to be going on that D-rank too. You'll have to stop her from spreading rumors on your own for today."

Naruto pushed himself up to his feet and held up a fist to his chest. "Alright then, just leave it to me! I'll-"

He hadn't noticed Mikoto holding both hands to her head until she spoke up. "Voice…lower…"

"Ah, right. Sorry. Well, I'll take care of Ino today. You just rest and all that good stuff. Try eating some crackers and take a cold shower. Might help."

Mikoto watched him walk out with a wave over his shoulder. "Friends huh…that confrontation went a lot smoother than I thought it would. Is that the result of friendship? What would Kimiko have done? We keep having these closer-than-a-friend moments. Is he somehow making them happen or is Fate really just enjoying messing with my sanity?...He's an idiot, so I'm betting on Fate being an ass."

.,.,.,.,

Naruto had gone home and gotten ready for his afternoon at the civilian Academy. The civilian side of education has always been up to age eighteen, with twelve grades plus Preschool and Kindergarten. Most civilian children started schooling at the age of five or six, depending on if the child needed to go to Preschool, which is a glorified daycare, or not.

The Civilian Academy, CA for short, has many subjects in common with its ninja counterpart. The main difference is the purposes and methods for teaching them. When young ninjas learned about angles and geometry it was to help calculate trajectories, jumps and dodges. When Civilians learned this subject it was with a focus on construction, and size efficiency like how a certain number of triangles can fit inside a polygon. This sets the groundwork for contractors and traders, who often need to stack items in displays or in carts.

With Konoha being a ninja village roughly seventy percent of its gross income is from ninja services. The remaining percent is from civilian trades and businesses. As such the population is generally focused towards educating children to become ninja, the strong, valiant, bringin'-home-the-bacon caste of the village. But there are some families that don't want their children to become killers, which is understandable. This doesn't mean that the children don't look up to those ninja as local heroes.

That is what this mission that Kiba dragged him into is about. Once every other month a D-rank mission is assigned for a small group to spend a weekend afternoon with the younger civilian students, improving civilian and ninja relations or something. It wasn't a large publicized event, but with the event open to any student under 8th grade, and shows their I.D. to prove it, the heads start piling up.

Naruto stood next to Kiba as he looked out at the small training ground flooded with children and a few chaperone parents. Shikamaru was laying back on a large rock staring at the sky, and Ino was talking his ear off about something or another. Naruto narrowed his eyes at her, noticing how both she _and _Shikamaru kept glancing at him. When it was just her looking at him he gave her the 'talking' and 'later' hand signs. He dragged his thumb across his throat for emphasis. She responded with the 'later' sign. And then proceeded to continue chatting with Shikamaru, not missing a beat.

He looked back at Kiba as he stood up from giving his large dog Akamaru a treat and jerked his head at the crowd.

Kiba wiped his hands on his black pants and tugged at his leather jacket. "Yeah, I guess it's that time. Yo, Shika, Ino! On me!"

Both leapt the twenty five yard distance easily to stand beside him. The children were already eating it up like a chocolate buffet, just like planned. The adults didn't seem surprised, living so long among ninja desensitized them from some of the things ninja can do. Naruto vowed to make them gape in awe by the time the day is over.

Kiba, the initial mission holder and de-facto leader by proxy, stepped forward and projected his voice over the crowd to quiet them down. "Hey, thanks for coming out here to hang out with us! Today you kids are in for a real treat, cuz us four here are from some of the major ninja clans in Konoha. I'm Inuzuka Kiba and this here is my partner Akamaru."

Ino picked up her part of the script, chipper as always. "And I'm Yamanaka Ino, I'm a mind walker and poison maker."

Shikamaru sighed and gave a small wave. "Nara Shikamaru. I bend shadows to my will and I have a plan for everything."

"Uzumaki Naruto's the name, and being awesome is my game! I have more raw chakra than the Hokage and am the most surprising ninja around."

Kiba spoke up again as the leader of the event. "Alright then, now that you know about each of us, how about we get this whole thing started? Since there are so many of you we are going to split you up into a group for each of us and trade groups every ninety minutes. Each group is going to be doing something different to show you all a bit more about ninjas, with a fun twist on the activities. Throw your hand up and give me a yell if you think you're ready for this!" Akamaru threw his head back and howled in time with the kids.

.,.,.,.,

It was three hours into the event and Naruto was now standing in front of his third group. There were two mothers standing back and conversing quietly. Naruto grinned, remembering the faces of the last five adults he had amazed to near shitlessness.

"Hey there! Did you guys have fun with the other two groups? Wanna tell me what you did? So I can make sure you all have more fun with me than the others!" Of course he already knew what the others were doing with the kids. Ino had a small throwing gallery set up, where the kids can win a small ring with the Konoha symbol on it. Of course the projectiles were blunted shuriken to keep the ninja theme. Kiba was playing hide and go seek, and gave everyone that could hide from him for over a minute a rubberized bracelet. Shikamaru was having the children fight a mock battle against each other, mixed with elements from the game red light green light. The children would charge in with foam weapons and have to stop when Shikamaru blew a whistle. Then he would go to each side and give each group an 'order'. Each child hit twice gets sent back to the starting line. Since there is no real winners, he just gives out small bags of Akimichi candy to everyone.

"Haha! So you guys just came here from Kiba then? Let me see a raise of hands to everyone that wanted to get a ride from that big dog of his!" Just about every child and even one of the moms raised her hand in the back. "Alright, alright. So what would you say if I told you that I have something planned like that, only twice as awesome?"

The children cheered in excitement. "Yes! So here is what's going to be going on here. I'm going to be giving you all a ride and take you on a trip to show you what it's like to move like a ninja. Sound like fun?"

Again, the kids cheered but they questioned how he was going to do that as there was nothing set up in the clearing. The blond just grinned. A copy of himself appeared behind each of the kids and tapped them on the shoulder. After a short cry of surprise the copies all crouched down, explaining that they needed to get on his back. As soon as everyone was situated they all stood up and hopped from foot to foot, subtly adjusting them on his back. "Okay, we are going to count down from three and all of you are going to shout 'Awesome' at the top of your lungs. Ready? Here we go, hold on tight. 3…2…1."

"**AWESOOOOOOOOOOO-" **and they were gone.

As soon as they were out of sight the original Naruto that stayed behind turned to the mothers. "Hello ladies, enjoying yourselves?"

The mother that hadn't raised her hand earlier shrugged. "It's not too bad, just like taking the children on a field trip. We get to sit back and watch them have fun."

Naruto nodded. "Ah, so you're a teacher then?" She confirmed it. "Then how about you join the kids, they're going to be gone for a while anyway."

She politely refused him, pointing out that she weighs a bit more than a 12 year old. Naruto raised his eyebrow in amusement. She was in her mid thirties, but obviously kept good care of herself. He stepped over to a large boulder that was almost as tall as he was and placed his foot on the side of it. He asked her if she weighs more than that boulder, which she obviously told him no. The then sent the boulder shooting off into the tree line. He placed his left foot that he used to shove the rock back on the ground and walked back to the pair. "So how about it, up for a go?"

The pair looked to each other and giggled, nodding at him. He grinned as two clones behind them reached out and picked them up in a princess carry. "Same thing as with the kids, awesome on one. 3…2…..1." With a shout the clones and the mothers were off. 'At least it was two women this time.' The last group was the biggest and had three fathers and a mother. That had been awkward.

A voice spoke up from behind him. "I leave you alone for a few hours and you start flirting with older women?"

Naruto looked back at her. "Just livening things up a bit. What's the matter, jealous?" He dodged the smack aimed at the back of his head. "How are you feeling?"

Mikoto shrugged. "Better, now that I had a chance to talk to Ino. Though I had to do a round at the gallery and 'show off my amazing Uchiha skills' to some children and their parents."

Naruto let out a relieved breath. "Whew, it's probably best that you did it and not me. Ino seemed to be telling Shika something right in front of me, like I didn't even matter to her."

Mikoto 'hmm'ed. "Yes, I had a chat with him too. Said it was too troublesome, so he's taken care of."

They stood there in silence for a bit staring into the forest. "Hey, are you well enough to cast some weak genjutsu on some kids? The group will be back in less than half an hour and I don't have much else planned for the rest of the session. I just kinda talked to them last time, they were really interested in my dad and kept asking if I had a bloodline."

Mikoto was quiet for a moment, before shrugging. "Fine, but you owe me twenty bucks."

Naruto laughed. "Hahaha, sure, I think I can afford it despite last night. Also we're meeting up with the rest of the gang at that restaurant from last week, you coming?"

Mikoto nodded as she leaned back against a tree with her eyes closed. Naruto stayed quiet in case she still had a headache. The kids would do the loud talking for him.

.,.,.,.,.,.,

It was lunchtime the next Monday, after a special announcement over the PA system about an update to their Graduation Requirements. Naruto was sitting on the roof of the building with a sandwich in his hand next to Kiba, Shikamaru, and Chouji. He envied Chouji's plethora of food, stored in a scroll along with a table, seat and utensils.

Kiba swallowed a bite of his own sandwich and turned to him. "So, dude, you gotta be straight with us. What's going on with you and the Queen." Naruto didn't even have to think to realize who he was talking about. Mikoto was nicknamed the Queen of the Campus in last year's yearbook. "You two have shown up together twice to a restaurant, you paid for her food once with a bogus excuse, and you seem to spend more and more time with her outside of classes. Last year you two were barely more than acquaintances. More like rivals, really."

Naruto took a bit of his food, more to avoid the stares and stall for time than because he was hungry. "Nothing is going on between us guys, you're all just imagining what you want to see. There is no relationship between us. Just friends."

The Nara of the group put his drink down. "I didn't know friends took other friends to the most expensive restaurant in town, getting all dressed up and buying her flowers. We're friends, will you do that for me?"

Naruto sighed as he stared down at his sandwich for a minute. "That was another thing she got me to agree to, well I suggested it, but she agreed. See, I took a joke way too far and was desperate to save my hide, I would have agreed to pretty much anything to get her to forgive me."

"Huh, that doesn't sound too impossible, knowing you. What was the prank that went wrong?"

Naruto blushed and coughed into his hand. "Ahem, uh, I don't know if I should…"

Kiba noticed the look on his face and grinned. "What did you do? Come on man, we're not like Ino and her group, we won't tell. This is just for our own curiosity. Right guys?"

"Not a soul…nom nom nom."

"Would be too troublesome."

Naruto sighed and slumped his shoulders as he looked up to the sky. "I can't believe I'm telling you guys this. I will hold all three of you responsible if this gets out. You don't want to know what I will do to you if you are responsible… It pretty much all started on the night we all met up at that new restaurant. Mikoto found me after class, saying that I owed her for not being serious in our spar. On our way to the restaurant she was actually pretty fun to talk to, we joked around and stuff. Then while we all were eating she was teasing me, eating provocatively and stuff. She had ordered Alfredo, so you can imagine what she did. Then when I walked her home I played a prank on her to get revenge for getting me all worked up. Got up in her face and pushed her against a wall, like in all those romance movies, breathing huskily and all that. Then I messed up, and she was pretty mad afterward. Which led to me owing her the most expensive dinner I could find."

The guys were all amazed and slack jawed, even Chouji stopped eating. They viewed Mikoto in a whole new light, apparently she was entirely different than she had been when they were in the Academy. Instead of broody and dark, she joked around like the rest of them and could have a normal conversation.

Shikamaru spoke up after he digested this new information. "Okay, but what did you do to make her so mad?"

Naruto was already regretting having this conversation, but now that he had gotten this far he may as well tell them. "I, uh, well I got caught up in the heat of the moment, see? And, well, I kind of kissed her."

Silence. Until Kiba started choking on his sandwich, rolling around on the ground and holding his throat.

.,.,.,.,.,

Damn it, she had been cornered. She had been sitting at a cafeteria table, enjoying her lunch, when Sakura and all of the other girls had swooped in and took up all of the empty seats around her. They didn't really talk to her, just around her. That is until she finished her lunch. They must have been waiting for that, so that they could ask questions and she wouldn't have anything to stall for time. And there was still fifteen minutes until classes started again. Damn. After glancing around at the now mostly empty cafeteria she decided to tell them enough to make them stop bugging her about it, and make sure to threaten them all enough to keep their lips welded shut. They may be the biggest gossips on the planet, but they were still friends.

Too bad she didn't know that she'd be leaving the village in a couple days. Too bad they did.

.,.,.,.,

After the final class ended and the students were packing up their supplies in scrolls, to get them used to using them, Iruka spoke up one last time. "Ah, excuse me, Naruto, Mikoto. Could I see the two of you in my office?" Then he walked out the door toward his office to wait for them.

Kiba elbowed him in the ribs. "What's wrong, got caught making out with her in the back of the school?" Naruto proceeded to shove him down the stairs to the floor of the class, then step over him as he headed for the door.

Once the two of them reached the office and entered they saw Kimiko sitting in a chair in front of Iruka's desk. She grinned and stared at Mikoto as she waved at them. Iruka looked up from his desk when they sat down on the last two seats.

"Good, now that you are all here I am to inform you, if you didn't already know, that you three are the first group to be going on an above D-rank mission. The higher-ups really wasted no time in sending the first group out. I don't know the specifics, so you will have to go to the Hokage tower to get the details. Apparently Hokage-sama will be personally handing out these missions. I do know that Asuma-san, Hokage-sama's son, will be the one leading you on this mission and that you will be heading out of the village for this one. That is all, try and meet with Hokage-sama by the end of the day so you can gather the right supplies for the mission."

.,.,.,.,.,

Outside the campus of the KHA the three started heading in the direction of the large tower in the middle of the village. Kimiko was walking next to Mikoto, who was next to Naruto. Kimiko was giggling the whole way, glancing at the two. Naruto looked questioningly at Mikoto, who just nodded her head. Naruto would have been angry, if three other boys didn't know the same thing. "Keep it to yourself, matchstick." This only made her laugh more.

Once they climbed all the stairs and met with the leader of the village's secretary and the pair of ANBU stations outside his door. Soon enough they were let in to see him after signing in. Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting back in his chair with his pipe in his mouth.

"Ah, welcome. So nice to finally meet someone that uses the front door these days. I'm actually thinking of putting a floor mat underneath my window. Now then, why don't we get right down to why you three are here? As you know I recently added a new requirement to graduate, to participate in a higher ranked mission outside the village. What you don't know is why I did this. Late last week we received word of a threat against the Daimyo's niece. On most days the Daimyo's special team the Guardians would be enough to protect her. However, the Daimyo is throwing a party for the girl this weekend. The Guardian's focus will be split enough during that party that the Daimyo fears for his niece's life. So he sent a formal mission request for someone to protect her for the entire weekend of the event.

"Normally, we would send at least a squad of Chuunin, preferably some Jonin. But a clause in the request specifically asks for ninja of his niece's age. As you can probably guess, she is eighteen and we have no teams available that can protect her in that age group. All the others are out on missions or don't do well with guarding clients. This one mission sparked the idea to have the KHA send out teams on higher missions, to fill this gap. The council has decided on you three and my son, who is a former Guardian himself, to take this mission. Any questions?"

Kimiko raised her hand. "Are we supposed to be out in the open during the party? Otherwise the age shouldn't matter much."

Hiruzen nodded. "Yes, good question. I will leave those specifics to you three. Asuma, my son, will most likely spend most of the mission with the other guardians, tightening the security. But my guess is that the Daimyo will wish at least the two of you girls to go undercover as the girls friends, or servants. You Naruto, may be asked to be guarding her in the open." He reached into one of his drawers and pulled out three headbands. "Just in case I am giving you all temporary status as Special Genin of Konoha, you may not wear these until the mission begins. Also, it will help if you all had a weapon other than the basic kunai and shuriken. The Daimyo likes to see that his forces are well armed. Even if you don't use it if a fight does break out it is a good back up to have. You all will be given Friday off from classes, as you will be leaving Thursday evening to make it to the castle by morning. The Daimyo and his niece will be arriving back to their castle from the funeral of the girl's parents. That is all, dismissed. Good luck." He handed them each a copy of the mission dossier before they left.

.,.,.,.,

"Oh man! First mission, and we get to meet the Daimyo. How sweet is that? So, we have to get some new weapons. What are you thinking of getting Mikoto?" Kimiko asked excitedly.

Mikoto shrugged. "Probably just a katana. It's what I was best with out of all the weapons we trained with. Better to go with what your good at."

Kimiko nodded. "Yeah, that is true. Then I should probably go buy a kodachi. What about you Naruto? What were you best with?"

Naruto looked at the sky and crossed his arms in thought. "Hmmm. I was just kind of average with everything. So I'll probably just pick something that catches my eye."

Kimiko nodded before looking at both of them. "Hey, why don't we go buy them now as a group? It'll be fun."

Naruto agreed easily, Mikoto had to be pestered by Kimiko for about five minutes before she relented. So they headed to the closest weapons shop they all knew, Higurashi's Forge. Stepping through the door they heard a bell chime and a voice telling them to look around while they finished something in the back. They trio could hear a hammer beating on metal so they guessed that the forge was back there.

The store was pretty big, with different types of weapons placed on the walls, armor on racks, and smaller weapons on shelves. The girls headed straight to the back wall where the swords were, with Naruto following them since he had no idea what he wanted yet. Kimiko took down a black sheathed short sword, not really distinguishable. The blade was sharp but not curved like a katana. She placed it back on the rack and grabbed another weapon to look at.

Mikoto seemed to have found the one she wanted already. It was a guardless design and seemed to have a squared grip and sheath. He figured she liked it because it matched her clothes; it was white, with a black stripe going down it. When he saw her draw the blade out he knew she would like it. It was all black, except for the edge, and curveless with a tanto point. She gave it a few test swings before she readjusted her grip and did it again, this time with more speed. She re-sheathed the blade, but didn't put it back.

Naruto wandered over to the armor section of the store. He had always wanted to get a bit more armor on him than the normal mesh clothes. He was looking at the armor inserts that could be stitched into clothes when a large man walked from the back of the store wiping his sweaty brow with a smudged towel.

"Hey there, welcome to the store. Anything I can help you with? We do custom work too if you don't see what you're looking for."

Naruto waved at him to get his attention over the isles. "Yeah, over here by the armor!"

"What are you looking for? Ah, some inserts?" The large store owner noticed what Naruto had in his hand.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I've always wanted something a bit more resilient than just some mesh. But I like this vest. Any suggestions?"

The man stared at the vest for a while before telling the teen to turn around, then back to the front. "Did you want soft armor or some good old metal pieces?"

Naruto thought about it. "Isn't it normally metal pieces on the areas that don't move and soft in the ones that do?"

The man nodded. "Yes, that's how it is many times. How about this, come with me and I'll lay out some pieces. Over there to the back room, take off your vest so I can make a diagram of the sizes I need."

Kimiko looked at them from around a shelf. "Armor, Naruto? I suppose that fits you since you're a tank, but what about a weapon?"

The blond shrugged as he walked towards the back room's door, unzipping his vest. "Dunno, I'll look at them some more after we get this settled."

When the two men were out of sight Kimiko stepped up to Mikoto's side, who was examining some mounting harnesses for sword. "Whew, is it hot in here or is it just me? Cuz I just caught a glimpse of blondie's chest."

Mikoto didn't look up from where she was trying on a belt harness for her sword. "It's probably just the heat from the forge." She took a few steps and shook her head when the sword at her side kept slapping the side of her leg.

"Oh come on Mikoto, even you have to see how good looking he is. What did he look like the other night when he took you out?"

Mikoto flushed a bit as specific memories from that night resurfaced. "He was in a suit, blue shirt. He had a necklace on, which is apparently worth a whole mountain."

Kimiko imagined what he must have looked like. "Mmm. That must have looked nice on him. So, what do you really think about him? No one else around to hear it but me."

Mikoto threw the harness back on the shelf and looked at the other girl in annoyance. "Why do you keep pushing this? There is nothing between us besides simply being friends. Yes, he is attractive and I'm sure he'd say the same about me. Is that all?"

Kimiko backed away a step. "Chill girl, just a question…And yes, that is all I needed to know."

'_Stage three is under way, and accelerating. The fact that she called him a friend and is attractive is proof enough.'_

"So, what do you think about this one?"

.,.,.,.,.,

Naruto stood topless next to a large wooden table as the blacksmith outlined his vests dimensions on a large sheet of paper. The man then outlined the pectorals in red, abdomen and back in blue, and the rest in green. On the table next to them was examples of different types of armor. Metal plates, soft armor like kevlar and leather, and layered metal plates.

"Okay then, red means we can put in some metal plates like this stuff here." He tapped the solid pieces of metal. "Blue can have the hybrid stuff, layered metal plates and the like. Green can either be all soft armor or sections of the hybrid armors. The green areas need to move more so the harder stuff just won't do."

Naruto nodded. "What about the weight?"

The man pulled a clip board from the wall. "Let's see here. If we do all the green areas in the thin Kevlar, the blue in the new hybrid stuff and the red in the plate armor it should weigh in at about twelve pounds or so."

Naruto nodded, that was well within his weight limit. "What about sound? Don't those layered metal plates rattle and stuff?"

The man nodded and held up the example of the layered armor. "In the beginning they did, but most smiths nowadays figured out how to make them quiet. Small bits of leather in between so the metal doesn't touch, see?"

Indeed, there was some extremely thin pieces of soft leather in between each of the plates. "Alright then. That sounds good to me. How long will it take you to make two of them?"

The man handed him his vest to put back on. "Oh, an hour or so. All the pieces are already made, I just have to reinforce the fabric to hold them and it'll be set. Now, why don't we go look at some more pieces, legs and arms. Your friends might need some help too."

The two walked back to the front room and headed back to the armor section after asking the girls if they needed any help finding anything. "So, this here is a thigh guard. Goes underneath the pants and is the same layered piece as the stuff going on your vest. Held by some padded leather for comfort and treated to be water and fire resistant. Different sizes so they won't restrict movement. These are knee caps, basically padding that I can attach to the inside of your pants to protect the knees. They're a bit more comfortable than knee pads and not as bulky but they do the same thing, machine washable too unlike your armored vests. You'll have to hand wash those. Then there is of course the shin guards. Almost every ANBU that comes in here gets a pair. They seem to like wearing them outside the pants leg, but they can be hidden inside them too."

Naruto nodded and got fitted for a pair of each. "What about arms? I don't really have any sleeves except my mesh."

The shop keeper guided him to the arm armors. "Well, you could go with full length arm covers. Mix between solid plate and layered. Pretty popular for swordsmen."

Naruto tried one on and shook his head, it restricted his arms movement a bit. Plus it felt weird and had to be on tight to stay there.

"Well then how about just some arm bracers then?"

Naruto slipped on a pair. They were a flat steel grey color and had leather on the underside. They felt pretty good to have on. He waved his arms a bit and threw a few punches. "They feel pretty good. Definitely better then the full arm ones."

Just then the two girls came up to them. Mikoto had her sword harnessed at an angle across her back hip, so the grip of the sword was on the right side. Kimiko had a black kodachi with a thin hand guard strapped to the outside of her left thigh. The length of the weapon was short enough that the bottom of the sheath wouldn't touch the ground if she kneeled and the top of the handle was to the side so it wouldn't interfere if she bent forward.

"So, you're all armored up then? What, no gladiator helmet?"

Naruto chuckled. "Nah, my face is too pretty to keep the ladies from seeing it."

That got a laugh from the redhead. "So, what are you going to do about a weapon?"

Naruto shrugged and looked to the shop keeper for ideas.

"Hmm, I'm guessing you don't really have a preference on weapons then?...Aha, I think I have just the thing. I just came up with it about a week ago. Follow me."

The group of three followed the man to the side wall where Kimiko had found her kodachi.

The man picked up a set of arm bracers and handed them to the blond. He stared at them for a bit, they looked pretty similar to what he had on at the moment. The only differences he could tell was that it was a bit heavier and that it had a fingerless glove attached. The top of the glove had a metal plate on it.

The large man took the ones he was wearing and put them on a shelf temporarily. Naruto slid on the new ones and fastened them like the others. Again he waved his arms around and threw some punches, he also tested out the range of motion of his wrist with the plate and the glove, noticing no restrictions.

"These are pretty nice actually. How come they're not over with the armor?"

The man chuckled. "That's because they're not just armor. Can you make a fist and mould some chakra into the main guard?"

Naruto held his arm out and made a fist, then focused chakra at where the top of his forearm touches the arm guard.

Shink!

"Whoa!"

A fifteen inch blade shot out of a hidden slot in the top part of the guards. It had an edge on both sides and was as wide as his wrist and came to a sharp point. He held out his other arm and did the same thing, a matching blade came out. "Man, that's pretty sweet."

The smith nodded as he tapped the blade. "Yup, the blades shoot out with enough force to pierce a log. And you don't need to keep the chakra there to keep the blades out, put some chakra in the same spot to retract them." The blades quickly retracted, then shot back out. Naruto turned away from them as he experimentally tried swinging his new weapons around.

"It'll take some getting used to, but I like it. I'll take it."

"Good, good. What about you girls, want to try anything else on? Some armor perhaps? I got in some new chest pieces for women that are selling like hotcakes in an Akimichi compound."

Mikoto shook her head. "No, but perhaps next time." Kimiko dittoed her.

"Alright then, anyone need any more basic sets? We're having a sale on all level three tags."

Naruto brightened at this. As academy students they weren't allowed to buy the higher ranked explosives. But he figured he could buy enough to have plenty for this mission and some to store for later. "I'll take some of those."

He lead the three up to the counter. "Alright, you want to get me the vests and pants of yours or something? If you get it to me by the time I close the shop I can have it ready by the morning. Okay, so custom armoring, thigh guards, shin guards, knee guards and the hidden blade guards. That'll be a total of twenty two hundred dollars. I should also tell you that all non-basic blades come with a lifetime warranty. If they get dinged or scratched just bring them on in and I'll work on them for free."

Naruto reluctantly pulled out his check book and paid for it all.

Kimiko showed him her kodachi and harness, which he rang up and she paid for.

It was then that he noticed the sword Mikoto had strapped to her back hip. "Ah, the Kusanagi eh? One of my best works, I hope you don't mind the price on it Uchiha-san. Spent three months on that one alone. After all the testing I did on it never has it chipped or dulled. That's worth two thousand right there, but I'll let you have the harness for free."

Mikoto nodded as she paid him with a check as well.

"Please come back whenever you are in need of any weapons or gear."

.,.,.,.,.,

It was after class on Wednesday and Mikoto was practicing with her sword in a small field. Now if only she was alone…She had somehow attracted the attention of all of the girls in her class plus Kimiko. No one but the Uchiha was practicing, of course. The others were just lounging around talking. Mikoto was honestly amazed they were as skilled as they are with how much they seemed to practice.

Mikoto jerked her sword in a slash over her shoulder, redirecting a small stone that was aimed at her back. She inspected her sword. After coming in contact with the course rock there wasn't even a chip in the paint. It really was well made.

"What is it?" She asked over her shoulder as she started up again.

Ami juggled two more rocks in one hand. "You seem good enough with that sword, come over here and join us."

Mikoto huffed as she sheathed her blade. She grabbed her bottle of water off the ground between her and the group and slowly walked over before sitting down with them. "So?"

Hinata put her can down and faced her. "Ino recently got a confession. We were all discussing it."

Mikoto took another drink from her water bottle. "Why do you have to discuss about someone else's confession? Ino, isn't this your decision alone? I would feel bad for the guy if you only went out with him because a bunch of other girls told you to."

Ino leaned back on one hand and played with the end of her hair with the other. "Well, yes. But I just can't decide on this one. I was asking you girls on what you think."

Mikoto put her water bottle down. "Okay, but I wouldn't know what to tell you. I've been single my whole life. Who was it that confessed to you anyway?"

Ino sighed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Yeah, but at least you've kissed a boy, no matter how much you claim it was an accident. And it was Chouji."

Mikoto scowled and blushed, irritated for that fact to be brought up. "It was an accident damn it, and it won't happen again. And wait, didn't you like Shikamaru at one point?"

Ino nodded. "I did, for a while. His lazyness is such a turn off though. Apparently Chouji had a crush on me since the Academy. And it's not that I don't like Chouji, he's a really nice guy, I just can't see myself being intimate with him."

Sakura spoke up this time. "Then why don't you just try a date with him and see where it goes. You won't be doing much more than holding hands until a couple of dates anyway."

Ino's head lolled to one side in thought, then rolled it back to look at the leaves of the tree they were under. "I suppose. And I'm sure I could convince him to lose at least a little bit around the waist if we do end up dating for a while. What the heck, why not. Thanks girls, ice cream on me!"

.,.,.,.,.,

It was five o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday and Naruto was leaning against the wall just to the left of the inside of the village's main gate. He had his face stuffed into a book to pass the time and wait for the three others that were supposed to arrive any minute now.

Kimiko was the first to arrive with an excited wave. She leaned against the wall next to him and glanced at the contents of the book, but it went completely over her head. Really, why was the blond reading about advanced chakra physics?

Mikoto was the next to arrive, ten minutes later, and five minutes until the meet up time. She too wondered about the book, but asked him about it instead.

Naruto chuckled as he put the book away and pulled out a scroll. He unsealed a water balloon and held it out to her. He told her to stare at it closely. She noticed how the surface of the balloon seemed to warp, and that the effects seemed to be gaining momentum. When the balloon seemed to be on the verge of exploding a hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from it.

Just then the balloon exploded, sending water everywhere. "Aww, why'd you do that?"

Asuma just chuckled as he dropped his hand from guarding his lit cigarette from the water.

"Do you really want to have to deal with a wet irritated team mate on an all night trip?"

Naruto shrugged. "Wouldn't be too different to how she normally is, just wetter. Sup, names Uzumaki Naruto." He shook hands with the Jonin.

They all exchanged greetings. After checking all of their supplies they signed out at the guard post and took off into the dimming daylight.

.,.,.,.,.,.,

**Okay, so a 20k chapter just wasn't going to happen. It just seemed to be like a run on sentence. So I cut it off, I still have about a quarter of the next chapter saved though.**

**The first scene didn't really turn out the way I thought it would, no matter how many times I retyped it. Oh well.**

**I realized as I was typing this chapter that I was using nicknames that not everyone may get the reference to, so I decided to explain a few that I will be using more often than not.**

**Pink eye- Joke about the Sharingan**

**Fan girl-Uchiha symbol is a fan, Mikoto is a girl**

**Matchstick- it's a redhead nickname, Kimiko has red hair**

**As I come up with more nicknames I'll list them down at the bottom of the chapter, so if you don't understand it check down in the A/N.**

**~Dshadodragon**


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter 4

At sometime around midnight the four of them came to a stop in a small clearing, close enough to see the road they had been tree jumping near for the past six hours. Asuma sat on a downed tree and pulled out some food and his canteen of water, the three teens did the same. After waiting for a good ten minutes to let them eat something first the Jonin broke the ice.

"So, this is you three's first mission outside the village from what I hear. Last year at the new Academy, right? I remember back when I was your age, already a Chuunin for three years. I've never heard about how you kids feel about being held back in rank like this."

Mikoto was already finished with her rations and was putting her canteen back in her bag. "Though we lack the technical ranking I believe that even the lowest ranking student of the KHA is at least mid-Chuunin level, which is why most of our instructors are Jonin or high Chuunin. That is the benefit of this system, each student is focused on more and more training gets done. Before, more than half of our time would have been spent on D-rank missions as Gennin until we gained enough clout to arrange a C-rank. The only thing that the KHA cannot give us is live experience against an enemy trying to kill you. High skills but low experience."

Naruto nodded as he slurped up the rest of the noodles in his third cup or instant ramen. "That's pretty much the gist of it. We also learn a bunch more than battle skills. Like, Kimiko here is about the best Earth elemental besides Jiraya and the Hokage. Earth it turns out is handy for just throwing big ass rocks at enemies. Earthquakes that can topple buildings, turn the ground underneath a bridges supports to mud to take care of an enemy transport line. Then there is the academic stuff, the espionage stuff and the like. I feel that I could take most mission objectives without much difficulty, within reason of course."

Kimiko nodded and fist bumped with the blond for praising her, agreeing that the KHA was better than the alternative. "Also helps that us orphans still get money from the government since we're still technically in school. Always a plus."

Asuma laughed as he lit up a cigarette. "I see, well it puts my mind at ease a bit to know that I'm not traveling with a bunch of wimpy Gennin. We will of course be dealing with royalty, and a lot of rich snobby people. Be on your best behavior. You three will be hanging around the Daimyo's niece, the focus of the party, either in disguise or not. We will decide on that when we speak with the Daimyo and his niece ourselves. Five more minutes, then we're heading back out."

.,.,.,.,.,

The team arrived at the Fire Lord's castle at around six on Friday morning. The Daimyo and his entourage were not to arrive for four more hours so the group was allowed to rest in the rooms they were assigned until then. Of course Kimiko didn't pass up the chance to joke with Naruto about not 'sneaking into his girlfriend's room while she was sleeping.' Of course he yelled at her in denial, and would have chased after her if he wasn't so tired from running all night.

Naruto woke to the sound of a loud horn, announcing that the Fire Lord's group was on approach. It gave him enough time to shower and change into his spare set of duty clothes. When he stepped out of his room he was greeted with the site of all three of his teammates waiting for him in the hall. He put on a serious face and nodded before they headed out to wait for their client.

The group stared at the road, standing near the other servants waiting for entourage to arrive. What they didn't expect was to see something large coming towards them slowly from the sky. Mikoto flashed her Sharingan for a brief second to see it better. "It's a blimp, with the Fire Lords symbol on the side."

Asuma tilted his head to the side as he puffed o his cigarette. "Huh, well that's a new one. He was always afraid of heights. I wonder what made him decide to get one."

Naruto looked around at the other servers, noticing their faces. "Looks like these guys didn't know about it either. He must have just picked it up. Must be nice to have the money to do that…"

Kimiko laughed at that. "So says the heir to the fourth Hokage, who lives in a mansion by himself, and has a bank account with so many digits it can be square rooted and it'll still have more money than mine."

Asuma laughed at that, used to the Hokage heir jokes as well. "All the money in the world and nothing to do with it."

Naruto chuckled and shook his head. "What I'm more concerned about is that our Daimyo is traveling in a metal balloon a thousand feet up in the air. One stray kunai with an exploding tag and everyone on that thing is toast."

Asuma shrugged and put his cancer stick out. "Such is the price of luxury. Alright girls, remember to smile." Naruto laughed even as he protested being called a girl.

The blimp was now just meters of the ground and had turned to present its side to the castle. A minute after it finally landed and the wind from the side propellers died down a ramp was extended and the door opened. The first group to exit was ten men and two women, all with a sash with the symbol of fire on it. Asuma walked forward and greeted them, promising to catch up with the ones he knew later, and introducing the three teens to them while the servers came out next carrying luggage.

Naruto was expecting the Daimyo to be like typical royalty, fat and flamboyant. He only got one of the two right, kind of. The Land of Fire's Daimyo was middle age with shoulder length black hair and a goatee. He wasn't really fat, but he had a bit of a gut on him. And he was definitely dressed like he imagined. He wore layered clothes in expensive material and enough jewelry to buy his home with.

The woman he assumed to be his wife was defiantly pretty. Long black hair and a nice face and figure. She was in a regal looking traditional kimono and a headpiece that was defiantly not cheap.

Then he saw a teenage girl his age walk down the ramp. She was dressed in what he assumed was the latest in civilian teen fashion, dark capri pants, a long bodied beige shirt and a red jacket. It all looked like designer brands, so it was obvious that she came from money, but she didn't have the snobby air about her that most royal children have. She had lower back length brown hair pulled back in a casual pony tail. She was looking around at the scenery and everyone around her as she stepped of the blimp, making him assume the file was right. Her father, the Daimyo's brother, was not quite as well off as her uncle though still living comfortably. She looked slightly withdrawn, no doubt still feeling down after the death of her parents. He'd have to fix that.

The daimyo stepped up to his team, stopping in front of Asuma, who bowed. "Ah, Asuma, so nice to see you again. How many years has it been, two? Three? I feel so much better now that you are here, anything I can do to convince you to stay?"

Asuma laughed and shook his head. "Afraid not, I've got it pretty good as an elite Jonin now. And I even got myself a girlfriend back home, so I don't really want to leave her. Lets head inside so I can introduce you to the rest of the team and we can discuss the specifics of the weekend, shall we?"

While they were talking all of the servers had already headed off to do whatever it is they do in such a large place and the twelve other ninja had hidden themselves already. Naruto, Kimiko and Mikoto all took a formation around the three royals as Asuma took point since he already knew the layout of the castle.

They finally came to a large meeting room, with plush couches, a fireplace and shelves of books. Naruto doubted anyone here actually read them though. After being convinced to sit down, against the training that they should stay standing, and tea was ordered, the Daimyo started things off.

"So, I already know Asuma-san. Why don't you three introduce yourselves?"

Kimiko spoke up first. "Manami Kimiko, Special Genin of Konoha. Nice meeting you."

"Hello Manami-san, may we hear a bit about some of your skills? I've never heard of a Special Genin before." the Daimyo's wife asked.

"Of course. I'm skilled in earth techniques. Creating walls, earthquakes, spikes and the like. I do know some from the other elements but I am not as skilled with them as I am with earth."

Seeing the three royals nod and look at her Mikoto spoke up next. "Uchiha Mikoto. I mainly use fire and lightning techniques along with illusions. Likewise, I know the other elements as well, but I am more skilled in those two elements."

The Daimyo brightened up at the mention of her name. "Ah, The last Uchiha! Your council always has something good to say about you. A pleasure finally meeting you."

"Likewise."

"I guess that just leaves me for last then. Uzumaki Naruto, same rank as those two. I use wind techniques, among others. Good to meet ya, Daimyo-san."

He just laughed at how casual Naruto greeted him. "Ah, Minato's child. You know, I met your father once when I was about your age. Hmm, and from what I hear you're rather special among the ninja ranks. Well, it looks like I got a good team here for the weekend. You don't have to worry about a thing Harumi-chan. Oh! Where are our manners? We haven't introduced ourselves yet. I am Kobayashi Isao, and this is my wife Akemi."

She bowed slightly in greeting. "Hello." Which was copied by all four ninja.

"And this is my niece Harumi." He waited as they exchanged greetings. "As you know this is who you will be guarding. My wife and I will be well guarded by the other twelve ninja living here. As you know there are rumors of someone coming after her, which is why you are here. I do not know who…attacked my brother and his wife. The matter is still being looked into. But with the recent attack and the threat of another leads me to believe that it may happen. The event I will be hosting here in the castle is set for tomorrow night. It will be fairly large, maybe three to five hundred people attending. Among these are various dignitaries and generals. Now, since I'm sure you all are more skilled at this than I am, I would like to hear your ideas on how to best guard her. As the center of the party she cannot just be hidden away, you understand."

Asuma leaned back a bit on the couch and placed his right arm on the arm rest. "Well, the only way I know for an enemy to come after the girl at the party would be to either launch a full out attack on the castle or sneak in and try to do the job quietly. I would think that whoever it is that wants at Harumi is going to be put off by the Guardians. It would take more than a dozen Jonin to get past that line of defense. So my best guess is that they are going to go for option two, undercover as a guest or even a servant. What I would also like to know is just why they attacked your brother. You have only been on the throne for five years since your father retired. If they were trying to limit the line of succession to someone on their side then they would be after you soon enough, after they got rid of every other person in front of theirs."

The Daimyo nodded and looked to his niece. "Yes, unfortunately that is what I have been thinking as well. But after Harumi here there is no one else in my family to take the throne, it would go to a vote from every city in Fire Country. I would think that that is too much of a risk if they want one of their group on the throne."

Asuma nodded. "Yes, well anyway. The best way we can go about this weekend is to start strengthening security now. The easiest way to sneak into a party is to be there before it starts. They will be expecting us to have more stringent checks on the guest, which we will. Also, I think the best chance to discourage an assassin is to have a guard near the target at all times. I would recommend having Naruto take that slot. Which leaves the two girls, who will go undercover. This way they can watch the crowd closely without being under watched too closely themselves. Mikoto here may even be able to use her Sharingan from time to time with no one watching her. How do you feel about having two new childhood friends Harumi?"

The girl shrugged, still a bit put off by how easily they were talking about someone trying to kill her. "It's fine I guess."

Mikoto and Kimiko nodded as well. "Alright, the story will be that you two came with Harumi to keep her company after the death of her parents. Get a story worked out together about how you met, and what you all like, as well as talking points to keep up the charade during the party. Friends don't just stand there lamely not talking to each other during a party. I assume you girls brought something to wear to the party? Good. Now Naruto, you will stay dressed as you are. The obvious guard dog, act however you want as long as you are seen keeping an eye on Harumi here. You can keep your name and rank if anyone asks. Most ninja villages know about you so it will seem likely that you are the only extra guard hired."

Harumi raised her hand, then got a bit embarrassed when everyone looked at her. School habits die hard. "You keep saying that he's special and that he's well known. Why is that?"

The three Konoha ninja looked at the blond in question. "Ah, well, I've never had to explain this to anyone before. Besides being the son of our fourth Hokage, I am also what is known as a Jinchuriki. There are only eight other Jinchuriki in the world. We each hold what is known as a Bijuu inside of us, locked behind powerful seals. Bijuu are giant animals the size of small mountains that have extremely large quantities of power. We can tap into this power if we need to. I happen to hold the most powerful one, the Kyuubi, the nine tails."

The three civilians looked at him in a new light. Because he didn't use the word demon they associated Bijuu in the same category as boss summons, which is actually a closer description than demon. Harumi looked more excited than scared of him, which he saw as a good thing.

Asuma cleared his throat. "Right. Well I think that is everything we needed to talk about. I'll be with the other adult ninja tightening the security throughout the weekend. Why don't you four head to Harumi's room and get started on those false identities."

The three teen ninja nodded and stood, bowing to the Fire Daimyo and his wife. They waited for Harumi to get permission to leave then followed some instructions on how to find the room before heading out of the room.

After they were gone Isao asked one more question before Asuma left as well. "One more thing, I don't have to worry about that boy putting the moves on my niece do I?"

Asuma stood and placed an unlit cigarette in his mouth. "I don't think so. I'd be more on the lookout of the opposite. The boys quite the heartthrob back in the village, but he's as dense as a rock. Besides, I'm pretty sure there's something going on between him and the Uchiha. Not too sure about that though, seems to be just rumors."

Isao and his wife stood and shook hands with the Jonin. Akemi got in the last word before they went their own ways. "I'm sure there would be no harm in Harumi getting a crush on the boy. He seemed nice enough, and he won't be here too long or too often anyway."

Asuma shrugged and bid them good day.

.,.,.,.,.,

Once they were out of the room and far enough away Naruto stretched his arms and shook his head. "Man, I always did hate those formal meetings. Do you have to go to a whole bunch of those Harumi, being royalty and all?"

The girl looked back at him and shook her head. "No, those things were reserved for my father. I wasn't really seen as royalty from where we were living, just a rich family."

Mikoto stepped up beside her. "You seem to be taking this rather well, despite all that's happened. Did you have friends back at your old home?"

Harumi nodded at that, putting her hands in her pockets as they walked up a large set of stairs and passed a maid and butler talking. "I had a few, but we weren't super close. Just hung out in school and on some weekends."

Naruto placed his hands behind his head. "Huh, well that sucks. I thought for sure you'd have a bunch. You seem like someone that would have a bunch of friends. What about boyfriends? Someone has had to have asked you out."

Harumi blushed at that. "Uh, a few. But they were all short lived. Half the time they were more attracted to my money than me. My last one was like that."

Kimiko stepped up to her side opposite Mikoto. "Ooh, you're going to have to tell me all about the good ones. How about later tonight? When we send your guard dog to bed."

Harumi chuckled and looked back at Naruto who was looking at the redhead with a frown. "Watch it matchstick, this guard dogs got fangs."

Mikoto waved her hand at him dismissively. "Oh please, you're all bark and no bite."

Naruto chuckled. "Oh? That's not what I remember from our last spar. I distinctively remember putting you up to your ears in dirt."

Mikoto glared at him. "And I remember setting your hair on fire and stringing you up by your ankles to a tree."

Naruto shrugged and dropped his arms from behind his head. "Meh, that was a clone and you know it."

"Doesn't mean I can't do it again in the blink of an eye." Her Sharingan sprung to life and stared at him, tomoe slowly spinning.

Naruto's back straightened. "Hey now, you really want to start that here? We can always take this outside so I can bend you over my knee and spank you."

Harumi looked to the only one not arguing. "Do they do this a lot?"

"Afraid so, hold on." Kimiko stepped between them, well used their usual rivalry. "Alright, quit it with the lovers' quarrels. We're here anyway."Sure enough Harumi was opening a large wooden door and stepped through. "Wait out here Fido, and guard the door for a while."

Naruto scowled at her. "Who died and made you the leader? And we're not lovers damn it, and you know it. Why do I have to wait out here in the hallway anyway? You guys are just going to…" he stopped himself at the looks he was getting from the three women. He saw Mikoto pointing over her shoulder at the luggage sitting in the middle of the room with a raised eyebrow. "Ah…Fine, but I'm not sitting out here for any longer than an hour. Got it?" He then leapt up and lounged on one of the exposed beams with his Rasengan book in one hand and a rubber ball in the other.

No sooner had they closed the door did he hear girlish giggling coming from the room. "Damn it…"

.,.,.,.,.,

It was a bit more than an hour and a half later when he looked up from his rubber ball and book. The girlish giggling had become a kind of background noise that he just tuned out as he focused on getting the second stage of his father's technique down. He had looked up because he heard wheels on a cart rattling as they moved across the tiled floor. Down the hall he could see a woman in a maid uniform pushing a metal cart with four covered dishes.

He leapt down from his perch and knocked on the door as he faced the maid and the cart. "Lunch time ladies, put your clothes back on." He enjoyed the look on the maids face as he thanked her for the food, telling her that he had it from here.

Mikoto opened the door and looked at him with a frown, then at the maid walking away shaking her head. "Was that really necessary?"

Naruto shrugged as he pushed the cart into the room and looked around. The room was the size of his living room with a large four poster bed and a windowed door leading out to a small personal porch. There were two other doors in the room, so he assumed she had her own bathroom and walk in closet. To one side was a large desk and a shelf cabinet. On the opposite side was a table up against the wall with three chairs, one on each available side.

He placed three of the covered dishes in front of the chairs and one on the desk on the other side of the room. As the others sat down and were about to take the top off the food he held up a hand and stopped them, grinning. "Now, what kind of guard dog would I be without checking all of the food. I'm the only one here impervious to poison after all."

He walked over to their table and took the top off of Harumi's plate. "Man, if this is lunch I can't wait to see dinner." He used his own knife and fork to cut into her steak, scooped up some mashed potatoes on top of it and then dipped that in the gravy. He smiled at them all as he chewed it. "Hmm, needs some salt and pepper, but no poison here." He did the same to Kimiko's plate, who huffed and rolled her eyes at him as she patted his head.

As he was reaching for Mikoto's cover he had to dodge the steak knife she stabbed at his hand. "Sit boy."

He narrowed his eyes at her even as his smile stayed in place. "But Miko-chan, what if that plate was meant for Rumi here? You could die, and it would be all my fault. I'd be so sad." He then looked over to the doorway that was behind the girl. "Oh, hey Asuma. What's up?"

Mikoto looked behind her, only for her eyes to widen when she saw no one at the door. Her head whipped back to him in time to see him swallow his bite and lick his fork clean. "Nope, no poison here either." His smile was slightly evil as he walked over to his own plate.

Kimiko and Harumi couldn't keep their laughter hidden when the Uchiha threw her spoon and nailed the blond in the back of the head as he was about to take the first bit of his own food.

After Mikoto stopped glaring at him she finally ate her lunch. Afterwards they caught him up on their cover story, just in case he needed to know it. When that was taken care of they left the room and wandered the mansion, checking in to the grand ballroom to see how the decorations were coming along. After about five hours of walking one of the Guardians appeared through a window, a monk, judging by his robes and shaved head.

"Dinner is ready, please follow me so I can show you the quickest way to the dining hall."

All the girls groaned whereas Naruto just smiled as they followed after him.

.,.,.,.,.,

It was a bit later than they were used to meeting up, but the group had to wait for their last member to make it over after she hung out with her boyfriend, which she finally broke down and confessed that they were. Not that anyone in the entire village didn't know by now.

"Hey there Hinata, have a fun time?" Ino teased. She had confronted Chouji just the other day to inform him of his 'taken' status. They had a date planned for not this upcoming week, but the one after it, on Monday, the Kyuubi festival made a convenient date night. They have been close friends since before they were toddlers, with their fathers bringing them to each other's houses to play constantly. Because they have been so close for so long they didn't feel the that they needed to get past that first date to make things official.

Hinata sat down at the table, this time in Sakura's home, and poured herself a glass of lemonade the pink haired girl's mother had made for them. "Oh it was lovely, I had a great time. So, what's the subject for tonight's meeting? We can't really plan anything more for Operation Black and Blue without hearing if anything new happens when Kimiko gets back."

Ami was playing a game of war against Sakura, and loosing by the size of her stack of cards. "Well I was kind of wondering if anyone knew Blue's birthday. I've never been to one of his parties, or even heard of one."

Hinata's mood dropped a bit. "That's because he never has one."

Ino furrowed her brow as she turned her page in the text book she was making notes on. "What do you mean never? He probably just only invites the guys to the parties, who knows what goes on at those things."

Hinata just shook her head, which got the attention of the other four at the table. "No, I don't think you guys have realized just when his birthday is…"

Sakura dropped her cards to the table from her now limp hands. "The Kyuubi festival…oh god, while we've all been out having a good time he's been having his worst day of the year."

Ino snapped her book shut as she too realized something. "Not only that, the Fourth died sealing it that night. And his mother died just after giving birth to him."

Ami summed it all up for them. "The three worst parts of his life in one day. Now I can see why he wouldn't exactly celebrate his birthday. I'm actually more amazed none of us, and likely the others too, realized what that day meant to him."

"Though I'm sure that lazy bastard Shikamaru probably knew already, just never said anything about it. I'm going to have to have a talk with him tomorrow about that." She said as she pulled out her phone and started dialing.

Hinata looked at her. "You just said you'd talk to him tomorrow, why are you calling him now?"

Ino put her hand against the microphone at the bottom of the phone. "I'm not calling that bastard. I'm rescheduling my date."

.,.,.,.,.,

After dinner was over, and Naruto had eaten a piece of _everyone's _food the three wandered their way back to Harumi's room. Again, Naruto was kicked out of the room and told to go lay down. He gave a fake laugh at the now old joke as he went back up to his rafter and took out his rubber ball. He let the girls know that he expected a shift change within a few hours so he could get some real rest, to be ready for tomorrow. Again, the giggling and voices were tuned out as he focused.

About an hour later the girls all jumped when they heard a loud bang and Naruto screaming. Fearing the worst, the two ninja burst out of the room, weapons drawn. Only to see Naruto dancing around praising himself that he 'did it' and holding the remains of his rubber ball.

"What the hell?" Mikoto was not amused.

Naruto stopped his dancing to face them. He held out his hand and showed them the remains of the ball. "Ah, sorry. No enemies or anything. I just finished a step in learning a technique, which made the ball explode."

Harumi stepped out of the room and looked around. "What technique? How useful can making a ball explode be?"

Naruto threw away the remains of the ball and explained. "Ah, just a technique of my dad's that he left for me to learn before he died. Making the ball explode isn't the actual technique, just a learning step for the final technique. That's all. You can all go back to salivating over your boy bands or whatever."

Mikoto said she'd take over the watch at ten, which he nodded to as he went back up to his spot and relaxed.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Naruto woke up from the five hours of sleep the shift change gave him. As a ninja he was used to performing at maximum on far less than that over several days. Five hours may as well have been a full eight hours of sleep an untrained civilian would need. He got cleaned up and ready and headed over to the room all the girls were at. He found Mikoto lounging on the same rafter that he had been using earlier. It was really early in the morning, he doubted even the housekeepers were even up at three in the morning like it was.

He swung himself up to land just in front of her feet and he gently got her waning attention. It would be troublesome to startle her and have her fall off the beam. She silently stared at him before patting his shoulder, telling him to wake her up for breakfast, and headed off.

As per their agreement before they even left the village they had the agreement that the girls would stay with Harumi through most of the night, and Naruto would guard her in the early morning hours. He stealthily opened the girls door and crept to the table Kimiko was sitting at wrapped in her sleeping bag, with what looked like make up homework on the table when she looked up at him. He planted himself in the seat across from her and nudged her with his foot, jerking his head at the door. She shut the book and gathered her sleeping bag and headed out the door, rubbing his head like a dog. He ignored it and stood up again, walking over and laying down on a recessed window bench facing the back garden and the private porch. Every once and a while he would wave at one of the guardians as they made their rounds, even Asuma went by before the sun came up.

About five hours after his shift had started, so at about eight in the morning, Naruto noticed the girl on the bed moving around more and more. A sign that she was waking up. She rolled over to face the room and looked around, and apparently couldn't see him. "Mmm, anyone there?"

Naruto grinned from where he was laying on the long cushioned bench in the early morning sunlight. "Woof woof."

She gave a sleepy laugh and re-adjusted the covers. "I know you for one day and you already get to see me in my pajamas. Lucky you. You do realize I'm royalty right, I could have you behedded."

Naruto snorted a laugh at her. "Oh please, I'm sure I'll see more of your royal ass in whatever dress they string you up in tonight while I save said royal ass. Perks of the job you see."

Harumi sat up and stretched a bit, then ran her hand through her hair as she gradually became more awake. "And what an ass it is, if I do say so myself. What time is it anyway?"

Naruto looked out the window at the sun. "A little past eight thirty, closer to nine maybe. Ready for some breakfast, cuz I'm starving."

Harumi slid out from the covers and gingerly put her feet on the cold wooden floor. She waved her hand at the door. "I'm amazed you haven't exploded yet from how much you ate last night. Even more so that you want to eat even _more._ Just gimme a minute to get dressed and we'll go eat. I assume of course that you'll leave me alone enough to get ready?"

Naruto leapt to his feet and headed to the door. "Yeah, yeah. But before we head to the dining hall we have to go wake up the other two."

.,.,.,.,.,.,

It was now just under an hour before tonight's event be starting. It seemed like everyone but him and the other ninja adult ninja were still getting ready. The girls, even Mikoto, were all locked in the room getting ready and promised him a swift and painful death if he so much as breathed in the door's direction. He was starting to see how Shikamaru saw all women as troublesome.

He thought of them as slightly less troublesome when they did finally open the door five minutes after the party officially started. He leaned backwards to fall off the beam he labeled as his, and flipped to land on his feet in front of them. Harumi was in front, in a long blue formal dress. It is a strapless design, tight all the way down to mid thigh where it draped straight down. It had a slit going up the front of the left leg and a silver flower pattern along the top front edge of the dress pointing down across her body where it almost touched the top of the slit in the leg.

Kimiko was in a black dress reaching her ankles. It had straps holding it up on the shoulders and straps that draped slightly on the side of the arm. The fabric look incredibly light, maybe silk. The dress seemed to accentuate her abdomen, and had the added bonus of showing off her hips.

Mikoto's dress though he was pretty sure was forced upon her. Because he knew for a fact that she would not willingly show off that much leg, let alone cleavage. It was a red color, like the one she wore when he took her to the Thousand Crane, and was held up by being fastened behind the neck. The cleavage was so low he was sure that it was impossible for her to hide a bra in there. The fabric along the waist was crumpled, made to look like she was wearing a sash, and the skirt of the dress had three layers to it. But only the right side of the skirt reached her ankle, as the left side was hiked up all the way to just under the hip. It even had a small decorative bow to draw attention to the view.

All three girls looked mind numbingly good, with makeup earrings and necklaces. All three of them had their hair down straight, but it still looked like it was styled somehow. He did the only thing he could at the time. His brain lost a majority of its functions until it rebooted itself and he could only say one intelligent thing.

"Whoa…"

He realized that he stood out from them, not necessarily in a good way. He was in his battle gear, with all the fixings. Not exactly party material, he was sure. The only thing he managed to do to spruce up his own appearance was to shave and mess with his hair a little so a majority of it spike a bit backwards, instead of in any which way. He still had his bangs and he had been trying to grow in some hair to frame the side of his face like he had seen in photos of his father. He had his headband's cloth sewn around the collar of his vest, so it wouldn't flop around when he jumped or dodged in a fight.

Harumi and Kimiko laughed as they linked arms together and walked ahead, Kimiko grabbing Mikoto's elbow to drag her along. "Let's go Fido, a party awaits!" The royal of the group was definitely excited.

Though he smiled at the look on her face when they finally did arrive, and was presented by her uncle under a spotlight. The room was then filled with the murmuring old people talking and the classical orchestra against the far wall. She seemed to deflate when it became hard to find people under the age of thirty.

Naruto stepped up behind them and spoke into her ear. "What did you expect, a prom? This is a party mainly to introduce you to your uncle's colleagues. Though it does look like a few of them brought their kids. Don't worry, I'm sure each and every one of them will personally come and meet win the Daimyo's niece."

Despite the enormous size of the dance hall, it was a bit crowded, except around her. The other guests seemed to make a small bubble for the four of them, she didn't know if she should be relieved or confused. She went with both. The only time someone seemed to come into her bubble it was with the definite purpose of greeting her, and even then they only seemed to bow, shake her hand and say a few words. Then they were gone. Harumi had even steered them to the edge of the dance floor, to encourage any of the few boys her age to ask her to dance.

She was the Daimyo's niece damn it, the supposed focus of this whole party. Why wasn't anyone at least asking her to dance out of politeness? She'd stomach that if it nothing else. Kimiko leaned into her side and whispered in her ear, taking pity on how flustered she was starting to look.

"It's Naruto, he can project a kind of aura that makes it hard for people to stand near him. He isn't directing it at us, and its low powered enough so we can't sense it. I'm sure he thinks that by making it hard for people to come up to you without a purpose in mind he's limiting the amount of people we have to keep an eye on."

Harumi sighed and glanced back at the blond. His face looked more severe and determined than it was yesterday and this morning. It reminded her that these three really were ninja, and were here to ensure her safety. It didn't mean she didn't want to have a bit of fun though, a little danger would just spice things up. "Any way you could get him to go chase a frisbee or something?"

Kimiko accepted a glass of punch from a waiter, rolling her eyes as Naruto tested it first and then wiped the rim. She whispered a bit lower to her, making sure no one else could hear them. "Maybe, he might go for a bright red frisbee, he seems to like those."

Harumi grinned at her as she understood the secret meaning. She nodded at her, and Kimiko made it look like she was watching someone on the dance floor.

"Naruto, Kimiko. Yellow on the dance floor. He keeps checking his watch and he moves too gracefully for a civilian." Of course, he wasn't a ninja, just a professional dancer that was waiting for the party to be over so he could go back home, rest up, and pack for his next performance tomorrow. But they didn't know that.

Naruto looked at the dance floor to find who she was talking about. He watched the man for a few seconds before looking back at the group. He looked around the room, figuring out the best way for him to observe the man from a smaller distance. Mikoto made up his mind for him, glaring at Kimiko and mouthing the words 'you owe me' as she dragged him off to the dance floor. Obviously they hadn't been whispering quite low enough.

As soon as the pair was gone it was like the flood gates had opened. All of the younger bachelors had swarmed upon the two girls, all vying for their attention. Kimiko and Harumi grinned at each other and held out their hand at one of the men each. "Stay close but have fun."

"Oh, I will. You don't have to worry about that." And then they too wandered onto the dance floor.

.,.,.,.,.,.,

Naruto was still amazed that Mikoto was the one that had initiated first contact, lacing her hands behind his head. That only left him with the option with putting his hands on her hips as they moved about the floor. Occasionally she would steer him in one direction or the other, probably so she could see something or other behind him with her head on his shoulder and her face towards his neck. It was a bit more intimate of a position than he would have expected her to go for but he assumed it made her blend in better. The song was a really slow one, practically made for close dancing, so maybe she was really just trying to blend in with the crowd.

He made sure not to stare at the man he was supposed to be watching, just kept him in his peripheral vision when he was facing him and glancing at him when he could. But after a while he came to a sudden conclusion after noticing something about the man.

"You dragged me away from the princess." He looked around for her, spotting her dancing with another guy, Kimiko not too far away. "That's why you've been guiding me around, so I wouldn't see her with strangers while you could. I would have thought you would have been more professional about your first mission."

Mikoto took her head off his shoulder and leaned away from his body a bit to look at his face. "I am professional. That's why I'm the one watching her. I have the better chance of spotting something than you two. Whoever it is that's after her will no doubt take the chance that you are away from her and dancing with her shy best friend to strike. So keep your back to her, to make it seem like she's unguarded."

Naruto hummed his understanding of the logic as she retook her earlier position against him. "though you could have informed me of this little plan. I would have agreed." There was a small silence between them as they both focused on spotting something off about one of the crowd members. "Though being this close does force some other thoughts into my head. What did those tow have to threaten you with to get you to wear that dress? Cuz damn that's a lot of leg, among other things…"

He could feel her sag slightly as she sighed. "That they would find some way to get me to dance with the fattest, oldest man in the room if I didn't."

Naruto chuckled as his right pinkie toyed with the non functional small bow just below her hip. "Ah, Kimiko does seem like she'd manage that somehow. I guess I'm just your backup plan, to make sure she doesn't decide to do it anyway? Glad to know that you like me better than some fat guy." There were a few more minutes of silence as they swayed amongst the crowd. The small rhythmic motions lulled the blond into a bit of a trance. He was still looking around at everyone near him discreetly, but it felt like he was detached from his body. He could still feel it, but his movements were a bit numb.

His hands were slowly moving against the girl in his arm's back, a bit in tune with the rhythm of the music. Suddenly Mikoto tensed up, drawing his mind back to his body and what he was doing. "Ah. Sorry about that. I don't know what came over me there. Hormones are still going a bit crazy and…"

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Code red. They're making a move."

It took a second for that to fully register before he quickly turned around and leapt. Mikoto had been purposely keeping the girl right behind them, so it would be easier for them to act when this happened. He was vaguely aware of Kimiko pushing her date to the side and drawing a knife from…somewhere. And that Mikoto was maneuvering through the crowd below him.

He spotted the aggressor immediately, now that he thought he was in the clear he was blatantly moving in for the kill. Naruto landed a few steps behind him silently and slipped his arms around him and quickly captured him in a full nelson lock before he could recognize what was going on.

Harumi, just now noticing the commotion behind her, turned around and gasped at the sight of Naruto holding a struggling man that was holding a slim metal spike.

Like how she noticed it, so did the crowd around her. The band stopped playing and people were scrambling to get away from them, some were even trying to leave all together.

She gasped though when someone grabbed her from behind and she felt something placed against her neck. She slowly looked back and noticed that it was the man she had been dancing with for the majority of the night. He had silver hair in a low ponytail and round glasses, and he was holding a triangular knife to her neck. "Uhh, guys? A little help?"

Naruto looked up from where he and Kimiko were securing the guy he had restrained in ninja wire that Mikoto had pulled out of one of the layers of her dress's skirt. He looked back down at the one he was finishing tying up and noticed that they had the same features, but this one was dressed in the white uniform of a waiter. "Fuck. A decoy." Sure enough after he punched it in the bck of the head the restrained man disappeared. He stood up, staring at the man and flanked by Kimiko and Mikoto. He heard explosions going off in the distance, no doubt an enemy force to keep the others from helping inside the castle.

He was vaguely aware of the Daimyo and his wife already gone. Evacuated at the first signs of trouble. Naruto was a bit put off that they hadn't bothered to take the niece with them so they could deal with this guy without any distractions. He was going to have a few words with them when this was all over. "Everyone, head to the back way! They aren't after any of you! Go! NOW!" Stupid ass civilians, what are they doing just standing there like retards?

The man holding Harumi chuckled and stepped to the side, causing the two groups to circle each other slowly. A tactic so that they couldn't surround him. "So nice of you to get them out of the way. I don't know what I would have had to do to get you alone."

Kimiko stopped moving, forcing him to as well. "What do you mean alone? And if you're after her why haven't you killed her yet?"

Harumi squirmed a little in his hold. "Hey! Don't give him ideas like that!"

The glasses wearing man chuckled. "Oh, her? She's not my real target of course. If she was I would have just killed her when she was on the blimp. That thing is a death trap really. No, I'm here for you Uchiha-san. My master was waiting for you to come out of the village. In the end we had to force the issue by drawing you out ourselves. My master is quite the genius, he knew your council wouldn't pass up the chance of showing off their last Uchiha to the Daimyo."

Naruto snarled at the man. "If you aren't here for her then let her go!"

He looked down at his captive. "I suppose I could. I don't really need a hostage against you three anyway." With a chop to the neck he knocked Harumi unconscious and placed her down, then resumed their circling to get to let them grab her. "You could take this as a sign of good will if you want. I am here to talk to you about joining our forces of course."

Mikoto's Sharingan sprang to life as Naruto made a clone that dashed out of the room with Harumi in his arms. It would serve also as a guard for the other guests just in case. "Why would I want to join your little group? Who is this master anyway?"

He shook his head. "I'm afraid those low level Genjutsu you're trying to cast on me won't be working. I'll tell you anyway. My name is Yakushi Kabuto. As for why you should come with me, well, do you really think you stand a chance against your brother as you are? No, but my master can change that. He can give you the power you need to take your revenge."

Kimiko pulled out her short sword, Naruto was really starting to wonder how the hell she was doing that. "Don't listen to him Mikoto. He's just trying to trick you. They just want the Sharingan."

Kabuto nodded. "Of course, we want the bloodline of the Sharingan on our side. But it isn't a trick. My master really can make you stronger, after all, he isn't a Sannin for nothing."

Naruto stepped out of the circling game towards him. "Orochimaru, then. Sorry buddy, but we don't want anything that creep is selling. Besides, I thought he only went after little boys?"

Kabuto stopped as well, readjusting his glasses. "So he is. But that isn't your decision now is it Mr. Nine Tails? Mikoto-chan, what is your answer going to be? Stay where you are and never gain the power you need to achieve your goal, or come with me and reach it as fast as you can learn?"

Mikoto stayed where she was for a while, staring at him. It was easy for the other two to see that all this talk about getting revenge against her brother was getting to her.

Naruto pulled out a kunai and stood next to her. "Remember that lesson on gestalt bonds? The whole is greater than the parts and all that. I've been meaning to tell you about this for a while now, but apparently that dear brother of yours joined a group that is after the Kyuubi. Sooner or later he's going to show up on our doorstep. If we gang up on him I bet we can take him. You can get the last shot of course. Promise."

Kimiko flanked to her other side. "You've got me in your corner too. We've been friends for a long time now. I won't let you just throws all that hard work I did to get you to call me by my name. I'm sure everyone else back home feels the same."

Mikoto looked at her, then Naruto and back at Kabuto, in deep thought. Kabuto made a pretty horrible ninja, letting them talk and discuss things like this.

Finally, Mikoto shook her head and pulled out her sword from a seal in one of the layers of her dress. "If this is how good you are as a door to door salesman you should really stick to your day job."

Kabuto sighed as he held up his kunai. "I see. I'll just have to force it then. May I ask what made you decide to stay weak like you are?"

Mikoto just smirked. "Obviously you've never bet against Naruto. Anything he bets on always comes true. And he always keeps his promises."

.,.,.,.,.,.,

**Darn. Just short of the action. Oh well.**

**Someone asked what the pairings were going to be, so I'm going to ask you all a question. Is it not obvious by now who Naruto is paired with?**

**Also, here's a question for you all. What is Orochimaru's sure name? And Jiraya's for that matter. I can't find it anywhere. Tsunade of course is a Senju.**

**And the last scene came out a bit weird to me. It reads like it was a bit rushed, but it wasn't. I can't figure it out, so I'll ask all of you if you can point out to me what is wrong with it. I'll see if I can fix it if I agree with you.**

**I personally know nothing about fashion, so don't kill me on that in the reviews. I just describe pictures I find.**

**I'll have a picture of the three dresses linked on my profile before I post this chapter. I feel like I didn't do them justice when I described them, especially Kimiko's. That paragraph was damn short.**

**I thought about putting up a reference pic of what Harumi looks like in the casual clothes I described, but then I remembered that I didn't use one. I looked to see if there was a picture like that somewhere but no such luck. So you'll just have to rely on your imaginations there.**

**Until next time, guys and gals and everyone in between, have fun.**

**~Dshadodragon**


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter 5

Kabuto spun the kunai in his hand by the wrapped grip as he eyed the trio in front of him.

'_Who to focus on? The Uchiha automatically jumps onto the list with her Sharingan, but I have a Jinchuriki standing in front of me too. Though containers tend to be a bit obvious with their tactics, throwing their weight around the battlefield. But that is a considerable weight to be throwing around. And, I can't just take my attention off of the Uchiha….I suppose I should just ask who I can get out of the way quickly.'_ He resumed his walk to the left, but the three didn't follow him, just turned to face him as he circled.

He stopped when they were in a bit of a line in front of him, and turned to face them. '_There's one mistake. Oh well, it is their first real battle so I won't fail them for it. Just kill them.'_

The earth clone that rose out of the tiles behind the three silently brought up a kunai to stick into Kimiko's back. He was a bit surprised when a wall sprung up between the clone and its target, made out of rock.

Kimiko smiled at him cruelly as she flicked back a bang over her shoulder. "Hello? Earth Elemental here? Did you really think that would have gotten me?" She tapped her foot on the ground and another wall came up in front of the three at the same time as a spike shot out and impaled the clone, turning it back to its base element.

Kabuto swore as he took a precautionary jump back and landed in a ready stance. He heard another tap and saw the two walls shooting up towards him in parallel lines. The walls stopped two meters short of him and his eyes widened as Naruto and Mikoto, who had been running with the wall so that it would block his view of them, shot out towards him with pointy things already in their killer arc.

He quickly reached back and drew another utility knife and redirected the blows away from him. He then stepped past them as they regained their footing and threw both knives at the wall hiding Kimiko, only now they both had tags trailing the handles.

The explosion knocked over tables and lamps and paintings off the wall, as well as the expensive chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The glass shards were a bit distracting for a minute, both physically and visually.

The blond shouted over to the site of the explosion to see if the girl survived. His answer was for a hand to reach out of the ground and pull the bespectacled ninja up to his chin in tiled flooring.

Kimiko rose out of the ground behind him and put her short sword to what was visible of his neck.

Mikoto stood a meter or so in front of him with her Sharingan eyes gazing at him intensely. Naruto stood a bit to the side, staring at him too. His eyes flickered to the redhead and shook his head. "Do it."

There was only a second's hesitation before the cold steel bit into and through his neck. And he disappeared in a plume of smoke.

Mikoto slowly turned around to face Kabuto, who was leaning against the far wall and giving a small shake of his head.

"You didn't think it would really be that easy did you? I am Orochimaru-sama's right hand man, second in his army only to him. As far as killing me is concerned you all are just wasting your effort."

He stepped away from the wall and his hands started glowing, gathering the attention of all three teens.

Kimiko spoke up softly in a whisper. "Plan A-5 or C-3?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side in thought, staring at the evil lackey confidently walking towards them from a fair distance away. "I think we should use D-5. Inside here I can't let loose, and neither can Mikoto. We might get him, but we'd cause millions in property damage. So I think we should continue what we have been and either lure him outside or force him."

Mikoto walked forward towards the enemy, casually picking up speed until she was sprinting at him.

Naruto looked back at Kimiko. "I think that was a 'yes.'" She nodded and swept right, towards the windows as another explosion could be heard outside. Naruto took the opposite side and ran along the wall and onto the ceiling, leaving a clone with every other step he took that spread out and drew kunai.

Mikoto launched a fireball straight at Kabuto, making him dodge a step to his left. This gave her the moment that she needed as she continued her sprint towards him and lashed out with her sword. Kabuto again dodged, swiping at her side in an attempt to touch her with his glowing palms. After redirecting the strike with one hand Mikoto swung her chokuto at his outstretched arm with the other. She managed to cut into his sleeve and draw a line of blood from the narrow miss.

Kabuto again jumped back, avoiding a ball of fire from Kimiko to his side. He had to jump to the side when Mikoto stuck her hand out and _pushed_ the ball of fire towards him, instead of passing by her.

"Although it isn't very effective, I do have to commend you on your teamwork so far. Quite well played for this to be your first real battle, I can't say you're learning _nothing_ from that overrated Kindergarten of yours. Though I'm afraid that I will have to start getting serious, I am on a schedule tonight after all."

With that he threw a brace of kunai in a wide arc and managed to dispel over half of Naruto's clones that were closing in on him. Kabuto then blurred over to where most of the surviving clones were heading and proceeded to launch a fast paced melee against the blond copies.

Before he could take out too many of them Mikoto appeared behind him with a downward swing of her sword, which carved a gouge into the ground when she missed. She came back at him with a diagonal upward swing that managed to nick his cheek and trim his bangs. Before Mikoto could make another swing she was punted in the gut and tossed across the room.

When she landed one of the Naruto's appeared next to her while Kimiko tried her hand at him, using her short sword and tapping the ground with her foot to cause the ground to shake, rise up, or sink to mess with his footing.

"From what I can tell by how he's dispelling my clones he cutting us with his hands, but not breaking skin. So it's probably the Chakra Scalpel, meaning he's a medic."

Mikoto nodded and threw a kunai at Kabuto as he tried to set up for a counter, disrupting him. "I already figured that, fancy eyes and all. I also noticed that the small cuts I've been giving him seem to be disappearing, but he's not touching the wounds with his hands. He probably has a healing ability similar to yours, though I'm not sure how much he can heal at a time."

Naruto watched the fight as well. Kimiko was doing quite well against him on her own. Her tactic to disrupt his footing was working well, but he could tell she needed a break soon enough. Seal-less just, much less as many as she was doing no matter how underpowered, took quite a toll. "It looks like we're going to have to force him outside. He's been holding back killing blows against you so I'll need you to set him up near the windows, I'll blow him out it. Just make sure to not be in my line of fire."

Mikoto nodded and rushed off to give Kimiko a break from fighting Kabuto by herself.

"If you greenhorns planned no wearing me out with this switching tactic then you are sorely mistaken, I have barely even used any chakra and none of you have managed to land a meaningful hit on me."

Mikoto threw three shuriken at him when Kimiko reached a safe distance. Kabuto knocked them off their trajectories with a trio of his own throwing stars. He was alerted to her plan when she held up her hands and made subtle wrist movements. Kabuto glanced to his side to see that the stars he thought he knocked out of the fight were circling around him and connected to thin wires.

He managed to jump straight up in the air to escape from the trap, only to realize that he had fallen for another one.

Up above him Kimiko was attached to the ceiling and was doing hand seals, knowing she had time since he couldn't dodge from mid air. She finished her seals and crouched to touch the ceiling. Absently Kabuto recognized the technique as the Mud Flipping Wall as it smacked him across the room.

Kabuto got back up to his feet with a hand to his back and his head, the point of impact from the flipping wall and the floor. He looked up for where his opponents were and his eyes widened.

Twenty clones of the Jinchuriki were lined up in front of him finishing hand seals. They all brought their arms back before thrusting them forward yelling out the technique.

"**Fuuton: Daitoppa!**"

He tried to jump out of the way but he was dismayed to learn that his feet were tangled up in ninja wire, and were circulating chakra to counteract him using a substitution.

The massive wall of wind tore through the flooring on its way towards him, before forcefully ejecting him from the mansion and across the massive yard and into the tree line around the property, taking the windows and the wall around them with him.

Naruto sent the clones out of the mansion and off to find out what was happening with the other Guardians. Kimiko landed beside him and clapped him on the back.

"Nice one Fido! Now let's go finish this freak and show him that Blackey doesn't have to go anywhere to get stronger!"

"You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?"

"Nope!" Kimiko laughed as Mikoto stepped out of the damaged wall and surveyed the area.

Naruto sighed and followed her outside. Kimiko surveyed the damage Naruto did to the property. "Remind me to call you up if I ever need to dig a moat. What was that about not wanting to cause property damage again?"

Mikoto shook her head. "At least it got him out of the mansion, now I don't have to hold back. And don't call me Blackey." Her Sharingan eyes were fixed on the dust still settling on the other side of the lawn.

Kimiko looked over there too. "You're not the only one. Do you have any idea how hard it is to use earth techniques with tile flooring?"

Just then Kabuto stepped out of the dust screen. The only signs that he was hurt from the attack were the cut up clothing and blood stains, but no visible wounds.

"He healed himself again, what a troublesome bastard." Naruto muttered, only to receive an incredulous look and a glare in response. "What?"

Mikoto looked back at their enemy. "Pot, this is kettle."

Kimiko laughed. "Almost there Mikoto, I'll have you throwing out funny jokes soon enough."

Mikoto frowned but shook her head, focusing again on the enemy medic. He was clapping again as he sauntered forward.

"Well done, you managed to use all of your skills and teamwork to cause me no damage." He taunted.

Kimiko shook her fist at him. "I'll show you no damage, you asshat!" Mikoto stopped her from charging him with an outstretched arm.

"I don't like that it has taken the Guardians this long to take care of whatever they are facing. Naruto, is your clone with Harumi still safe?"

The blond shrugged. "Well it hasn't dispelled yet, so I'd imagine so. But one of my clones that I sent off to see what else was happening did, there's a small army out front, at least a few platoon's worth, maybe a bit over one hundred. Doesn't seem like there are too many with much skill though, not enough destruction. They should be able to handle it, probably."

"Alright, now that he's out into the open I think I can take him from here. So far all he's been able to do is dodge, block and attempt to counter. I want to do this on my own, to test how far I've come."

Naruto grinned at her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Alright. I guess you can call dibs on this one. He is trying to get you after all. I'm sending more clones off to the war zone." Just like he said a company of two hundred clones shimmered and puffed into life around them, before taking off. They each threw a projectile at Kabuto to keep him occupied and to cover their own escape.

Mikoto watched as Kabuto effortlessly dodged the hail of projectiles. Before the last of the kunai and shuriken reached him Mikoto glanced back at the two before sprinting off to catch Kabuto just before the wave ended.

Kimiko sheathed her short sword and sealed it back away in an array hidden by the fabric of her dress. "So…what are we supposed to do now? I don't think she'd like it if we so much as tossed a kunai in there. But I don't think we should leave her here alone with this maniac, who knows what could happen."

Naruto agreed with her there. "I've got my clones there anyway, as well as a few that circled back and are in the tree line. I think the best thing we could do now is to wait and see what happens." Kimiko sighed in agreement, and stood there watching as her best friend took part in a life or death battle.

Mikoto could already feel it, the Uchiha genes coming to the surface. Her clan was a family of warriors, bred and trained at young ages to fight, and fight well. With her Three Tomoe Sharingan active it was child's play to evade and maneuver her opponent just the way she wanted him. And she took a nasty sense of pride that her opponent was falling for her Genjutsu now that he seemed to be focusing on fighting her. Though she did have to remind him who he was fighting with when his eyes glanced back at the other two as he got an inch of breathing room.

The battle was going in a rather repetitive motion. They would trade blows, evading or countering but never outright blocking. Then they would try a technique of some sort, Kabuto with his medical techniques and Mikoto with fire and the occasional lightning attack. Mikoto was lucky that she managed to copy the technique he managed to land on her just as it hit.

The technique messed with her nerve endings in such a way that it tricked her body into moving exactly opposite to the way she wanted. A quick application of the pilfered technique had fixed that little problem.

After that Kabuto stuck to his chakra blades and managed to disable her left hand when she held on to him for too long when she executed a shoulder throw. So now she was left with the techniques she could do without any seals. Only a slight drawback, as she had more than a dozen such techniques.

One of which she was using now. A Genjutsu consisting of multiple layers to fool the enemy's senses into believing what the technique showed was true, and didn't stray from what seemed physically possible to alert him to it not being reality. She took the time that he was waving his hands and smacking trees to do what she could with regards to healing her left hand.

After just under a minute of treatment Mikoto figured she could get by with a numb but working hand. She focused again on the illusion, solidifying it once again onto his chakra system. Once it was secure she held up her sword in front of her and ran through a set of five hand seals.

A few years ago, a year after the KHA was formed, a quirky Jonin had taken an interest in her training. He claimed that he was just repaying a few favors he owed to one of her former clansmen. He only showed up about once every few months, and at odd hours of the day, but he taught her some of the most powerful techniques in her arsenal.

Training with that Jonin was also a part of why she refused to join Orochimaru. She already could get plenty strong here, a place her brother (may he rot in a cave with an annoying talking fish) had thrived and grew strong enough to wipe out an entire ninja clan in the span of a few hours and no one even knowing until the next day. If _he_ could manage that, she took it as a challenge to grow even stronger in the Village of the Leave than he did.

Over the years her pride in her clan had never diminished, but her pride in her village was only bolstered as she got older. The Leaf is the strongest, and she would be the strongest in the Leaf. Though she'd let Naruto have the hat, she couldn't sit and do that much paperwork day in and day out.

That Jonin had taught her, among the high powered techniques, how to master her Sharingan. He was strangely informative on the subject, one that even her clan scrolls were decidedly vague about.

It was one of his techniques she was going to use now, with a bit of a twist. She had been warned repeatedly not to use it, or any variants against anyone loyal to the village. Meaning she had never gotten a chance to use it except at a training ground by herself with an inanimate object as a target.

She let her chakra build up as she finished the last seal. It had taken a while for her to learn this technique, due to the enigmatic Jonin's "No Sharingan" training policy. It doesn't help that it is in a category of techniques that is known to be the hardest to learn. Elemental Manipulation.

In her left hand sparks were beginning to jump between her fingers. In the span of two seconds those sparks went from static electricity levels, to that of enough to rival a large tesla coil. It was all condensed into a blue/white, crackling mass that engulfed her hand. This technique called for the electricity to be _formed_ into a point extending from her hand. And to anyone with a bit of common sense, this would border on impossible. Electricity moves extremely fast, is always moving and doesn't have a definite mass that can be molded into any one shape. But with this technique she could, using chakra generated electricity.

Now that the chirping mass in her left hand was fully formed she turned her attention to the sword she held up in her right. She had never tried this before, but she had always theorized about it. The hardest part about the technique was forming the element to a sharp point that would then be used to devastating effect to pierce just about anything. But, if she applied it to something, oh, say a sword that already has a sharp point it would make things a lot easier.

Plus it would eliminate one of the techniques major downsides, making the technique hit. Since the original method was to form it in your hand you needed to be able to hit your opponent with it. And this technique isn't exactly subtle, with its loud chirping noise and bright light emission. Add on a few feet of reach from the sword and it becomes more likely to hit. That was the theory anyway, and she was going to try it out right now against an enemy she was allowed to use it against.

She brought her left hand over and carefully grasped the hilt of the full tang sword and willed the technique to conduct through the metal of the sword. It flickered for a second, fading in and out as she tried to stretch it along the entire length of the blade, before it solidified. Mikoto focused on it for a few more seconds, making sure it wouldn't go out on her, before charging her opponent

Kabuto smirked as he finally managed to subdue the Uchiha girl. Halfway through the fight she started to quickly show signs of fatigue. Slowing down, losing a good amount of force from her strikes, and he figured by how she had to deactivate her Sharingan she was running out of chakra as well.

He was rather curious on why her little friends hadn't intervened, especially when she was obviously losing steam. But it seemed they were content to just watch her suffer defeat. Oh well, it saved him a bit of trouble. Now he just had one more task to perform before he could take the girl with him and meet up with Orochimaru-sama at the base they had hidden inside the Fire Country's borders. He chuckled evilly as he pulled out a syringe filled with inky black fluid.

He gave the girl one more good kick to the side for being so troublesome before injecting her with the black substance on the low side of her neck. She seized up in pain as a mark rose to the surface of her skin and stayed there, not even ten seconds later she was unconscious from the fatigue and the pain.

He was just reaching down to pick her up and sprint out of there when he heard an explosion off in the distance. It shook the earth and scattered the birds out of the trees. He thought nothing more of it until he realized the birds weren't leaving the area, but coming towards it. Towards him.

And suddenly the world snapped back into place, and it took him a second to adjust. Like when you turn the lights on after being in the dark for an extended period of time. But the sound of birds was still approaching, from directly behind him…

It was too late, Mikoto was only a few feet from him with a crackling sword and moving too fast for him to stop or dodge.

The energy around the sword made the wound a lot worse than it would have been. Under normal circumstances the blade would have missed all of his vital organs and just pierced him through the shoulder. But with all that energy surrounding the blade, it not only pierced him, it blew a hole through him. When the momentum of the strike brought them both to the ground Kabuto had a six inch gaping hole where his left pectoral and shoulder blade should be, not to mention any organs that should have been there.

Kabuto coughed up a good amount of blood and growled at the girl who was now standing over him and digesting what she had done.

'_No! I won't die here! Not when Orochimaru-sama is counting on my success so much. I must succeed!' _

"Cough! It's not over yet little girl." Kabuto groaned as he stood up, black markings speeding their way across his body. The gaping hole in his chest churned and sealed itself, healing in a matter of seconds. Mikoto stood there in shock as Kabuto stood back up after being on the receiving end of her strongest attack.

"I'm through playing with you weaklings, it's time to take off the kiddy gloves and bend you children over my knee and give you a spanking." He then disappeared and reappeared with his knee stuck in Kimiko's gut, all the way across the courtyard from where he was before.

"Shit! Kimiko!"

Naruto tried to stab him with a glowing kunai but his wrist was caught and he was bodily thrown to the ground. He had to watch as Kimiko was punched across the face twice before he managed to scramble to his feet again.

By then Mikoto had crossed the distance and her eyes were shining with anger as she lashed out at him with an electrified sword and released a high kick when he dodged, catching him in the face. Only he didn't budge from the attack, merely grabbing her leg with a glowing hand and slam her into the ground.

"Stay down, little Miss Uchiha, as I show you the power that Orochimaru-sama can give to you. I severed the tendons in your calf, so you aren't going anywhere." He turned when he heard Naruto running at him and saw him with a glowing sphere in his hand. "And what do you intend to do with that Naruto-kun?"

"I'm gonna shove it right up your ass!" he shouted as he charged.

Kabuto just smiled cruelly and appeared inside his guard with a glowing hand to his chest, making the blond cough up some blood as the Rasengan dissipated. "While I am at this stage my strength, speed and chakra capacity all double. Meaning all of you, who put up a good fight against me before, stand no chance now."

Naruto coughed and grabbed the arm that was against his chest. "I said.. cough..that I was going to shove it…" Poof, the clone exploded and Kabuto's eyes widened considerably in shock.

"RIGHT UP YOUR FUCKING ASS!" Naruto shouted from behind him with a blue sphere spinning wildly in his hand. He thrust the technique straight into Kabuto's lower back and the technique shredded and twisted both his clothes and skin before it launched him spinning wildly through three trees across the courtyard.

Naruto stood there for a second, incase Kabuto something else out of his ass, before he turned to the two girls on the ground. "You two okay over there?"

Mikoto was sitting up and was trying to heal her leg with the few medical techniques she did know and Kimiko was on her hands and knees, coughing and groaning.

The redhead looked up at him. "Yeah, just peachy. Bastard punches as hard as Sakura does. Ugh, my head is killing me."

Mikoto grunted as her hands stopped glowing and she gingerly stood up and limped a few steps forward. "I'll be fine, I just won't be able to sprint for a while until this heals fully or I see a medic."

"Did someone mention a medic?" A voice asked and all three whipped their heads to the side, where a figure was walking out of the dust.

"You know, I wasn't going to use this on you three but you leave me no choice." Kabuto said as he stepped out into the clearing. At least, they thought it was Kabuto. The only thing that remained the same about him was his pants and glasses.

His skin had turned a dark ash grey with two curved, purple fang like marks reaching down from under his eyes. His hair had lengthened and turned black, bursting from the band that held it in a ponytail earlier. His muscles had bulged to leave his jacket in tatters and his skin was covered in patches of scales. Kabuto's irises had morphed from the black color he had before and into golden slits with black sclera.

He was also surrounded by a vortex of deep violet chakra that was tall enough to reach the tops of the trees.

"Before, I was just going to take the Uchiha with me and beat whoever got in my way into the ground, but you have constantly been getting on my nerves. You've forced me to go into stage two, where I am now five times stronger than I was at stage one. Meaning I am now ten times stronger than when this fight started. And you all could hardly keep up with me then, why don't you just give up before I come over there and kill you?" He released a fair bit of killing intent to finish his point.

Neither of the three seemed to be too disturbed by the K.I. though, more on his appearance.

"You call that killing intent?" The blond asked. He spiked his own intent focused solely on the mutated medic. It was enough for him to visibly stiffen a bit. "I don't think you know who you're talking to. Ten times what you were before? I haven't even really fought you yet and you still say I can't beat you? I am the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, and have access to a power beyond human comprehension."

Naruto's eyes became slitted and started glowing a bright blue as his birthmarks visibly deepened. Kimiko took a step back from him as she felt what was bubbling up inside of him. Mikoto frowned and grabbed the girls shoulder, pulling her back further, her spinning eyes on the blond.

"On my own, I have reserves twice that of the Yondaime Hokage. The first tail of Kyuubi's chakra is double my own, and each tail is more powerful than the one before it." The wind started picking up around him, becoming visible and making the forest behind Kabuto sway and bend unnaturally.

The ground began shaking as it felt like the earth's gravity was being increased from all the chakra Naruto was expelling. Slowly a light blue energy, almost silver, sapped from Naruto's skin and formed a bubbly shell around him. As soon as it closed off and covered his entire body it began moving again, forming two long ears at the top of his head before a large tail sprouted from the back hip.

"Ten times you said?" Naruto asked, his voice a bit deeper and more gravely with the influx of power. "Is there another stage you can go into? Because, quite frankly, ten times just isn't going to be enough. You're fighting me now."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Sarutobi Asuma knew there was a reason why he had quit from the Guardians. During this entire mission he couldn't seem to remember what it was. He had caught up with the other members, and the few that he hadn't met yet. They all got along well and worked together like a well oiled machine. Even after leaving the group a while ago the routines were practically engraved into his head, one of the reasons he was still being sent out on protection missions more than anything else.

After the two days of being around the group again he was even thinking of rejoining, despite everything he had back in Konoha. Kurenai would come visit him right?

And then this happened. This is the reason he had left. Because they guarded one of the most renowned civilian men in the world there always seems to be an attempt on his, or someone he knows', life. And not just some half hearted attempt. On at least a monthly basis there is an attack of some kind on the Daimyo.

But that was all well and good, that was what they got the big bucks for. But this wasn't just some attempt on the Daimyo. This was a siege on the Daimyo's castle.

The enemy had the upper hand in sheer numbers. Even with the Daimyo's royal samurai guard added to the defensive force they were still being overwhelmed. Thankfully the enemy didn't seem to be all too skilled. Most of them were Chuunin at most. But the ones with the strange tattoos were a different story, easily Jonin level. None of them were quite a match for any of the Guardians by themselves, but there were at least four dozen of the marked freaks.

Asuma had just taken down his fifth one of them as the samurai occupied the lower ranking enemies when a familiar face leapt out of the tree line on the side of the enemy forces. That one face seemed to multiply as more and more of the person swarmed out into the fray. They unleashed fire-y hell upon the rabble of the enemy forces, freeing up some of the slack from the samurai. That initial attack took a sizable dent out of the enemy, along with the surrounding scenery.

One of the blonds landed next to him as he swiped at his sweating brow. He frowned at the blood now on the back of his arm. "Good show Naruto. If you can do that a couple more times I think we might be able to pull out of this with minimal losses."

The blond grinned and thumped its chest. "I got a few left in me. I'd like to be able to just use a big wind jutsu though, my natural element and all. If you can somehow get our guys out of the way and the bad guys in at least a line, I can come in from the side and really do some damage."

Asuma readjusted his left knuckle blade. "I didn't know you were a wind elemental, kinda rare. I'm one too though. We'll have to share notes when we get back home. I need a few minutes to see if I can't get everyone back to the starting line. You think you can throw a few more big blasts out at them to keep them distracted?"

Naruto nodded and examined his hand as he fisted it. "Yeah I can do that. Just give the signal when the fields clear, I can't tell which one of those guys are ours like you can. Got anything flashy you can throw in the sky to let me know?"

Asuma grinned as he turned back to head into the fray. "Yeah, I've got something like that." The Jonin leapt off over a group and sprinted off as soon as his feet touched the floor again.

The person he was looking for was a bit hard to miss. Monk Chiriku, leader of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Shiny bald head and white robes, hands and feet moving like lightning. The man's taijutsu technique was only bested by that of the infamous Might Gai. He was surrounded by enemies on all sides, but it didn't seem to affect him as he sent one flying every few seconds away from him and occasionally into one of their own. Asuma readied his knives as he approached. A wind blade extended his short blades to a foot in length as he descended upon the backs of the ninja. A quick and bloody brawl later there was no one standing near him save Chiriku.

The monk dusted off his white sleeve and nodded his head in thanks. "Much appreciated my friend."

Asuma nodded back and watched the surrounding chaos for anyone trying to approach. "No problem. Listen, we need to draw our forces back."

Chiriku was obviously confused. "Why so? It does not seem to me that we are losing this battle, why draw back?"

Asuma shook his head. "No, not because we're losing. Because we can win so much faster than we do. You know that Naruto kid I came here with? If we can get all the friendlies out of the way he can level this clearing and any foe along with it."

"Ah, he was the host if my memory serves me correctly. So I suppose he could." He watched as a clone of the one they were talking about created a large muddy swamp that ensnared a group of the attackers. "Very well, I shall give the order then. Give it two minutes for everyone to get clear."

"Got it."

Alpha Naruto, the clone that is in charge of the other clones when they are formed in large numbers, waited patiently as his brothers fought against multiple enemy ninja. The ones that were dispelled in the fighting sent their memories to him. It wasn't a pleasant experience. This was his first time killing a person, and it was in such high numbers. He had thought they had prepared him enough in the classes, but nothing could prepare you for this.

Alpha Naruto closed his eyes as another clone was defeated, but it took three Chuunin and one with a cursed seal ninja along with him. That was another thing that was hard to swallow. Other people might just see it as a clone performing the Great Clone Explosion technique, but for the one performing it it's like committing suicide. Just another hard pill to swallow.

He glanced back over the field to see an odd billowing of ash rising into the air. But he couldn't see any fire from that area. He learned what it was a second later as the ash suddenly combusted into a bright ball of flame and exploded with incredible force and heat.

Alpha Naruto nodded, taking that as the signal. He leapt from the tree and landed next to a dozen clones that were saving their strength for the main show. He took a second to survey the area they were about to demolish. The main castle was a fair way away to the side. The enemy was mainly focused on the front pathway and carriage gate. It was a well groomed path of grass, cobblestone and colorful plants with a large archway all the way at the front.

None of that was going to be there anymore when he was through.

"Alright guys, you know what needs to be done. We're going with level five winds this time. Don't hold back, use everything you've got till you expel. Got it?"

"SIR YES SIR!"

"Let's whip ourselves up a nice summer breeze."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Kabuto evaluated his newest opponent. A Jinchuriki was always someone you never wanted to face, simply because of their ability to overwhelm anything with unbelievable force. He didn't have much information on the blonds' abilities though, not that he hadn't tried though. As a master spy he had infiltrated many top level security facilities searching for any record on him.

But like the other villages harboring Jinchuriki the Leaf kept themselves tight lipped in regards to their, potentially, most powerful weapon. Really, what he had just been told gave Kabuto the closest thing to a guesstimate of just how powerful he is. With current technology you could actually evaluate a ninja's reserves to a definite number, with a very small margin of error.

In some villages this was becoming a new form of sport, who can dish out the most power? It was estimated that the Yondaime Hokage held the second largest reserves in history, just under the Shodaime. For Naruto to say that he had double, with that reserve measuring technology available, isn't liable to be untrue. It also wasn't unheard of for Jinchuriki to gain large natural reserves from the pressure the Bijuu put on their coils.

With those numbers running through his head he estimated that, when the fight began, his maximum reserves were one eighth of the blonds. Using the first stage of the cured seal, he should be around a quarter. And at the final stage, stage two, he would have one and a quarter times Uzumaki's reserves. But if the Kyuubi really does have that much power in a single tail, the first tail even, and adds on to the blond's power…he now had only forty two percent of the Jinchuriki's available chakra now.

'_Well this is going to take a bit of doing. So basically…there is a gap the size of three and a half Yondaime's between us now. I can't let him get any momentum going, or give him any time to gather energy. It would be the end of me. Right then,…'_ Kabuto bit his thumb with his now long and sharp fangs and swiped the digit across his exposed forearm, showing a black mark circling the appendage.

"Summoning Technique!"

In a huge plume of smoke five enormous snakes now populated the clearing. They didn't need to be told what to do, knowing to attack the biggest treat. And the one letting off all that power is defiantly the biggest threat. All five snakes, brothers of the current Boss Summon, reared back and launched at the blonde. As a comparison of size, Naruto was smaller than any one of the snake's eyes.

Naruto didn't seem to be fazed, but Kimiko sure as hell was. She practically dragged the limping Uchiha as far away as she could as fast as she could while shouting for Naruto to dodge.

Naruto simply reared back his fist and punched it forward. The shockwave alone was enough to dispel the three centermost summons, and the overgrown arm of chakra that followed tore through the last two.

Kabuto landed gracefully back on the ground and frowned at Naruto for a second before launching into a string of hand seals. When he was done he let loose a literal tidal wave of smaller snakes headed for the blond.

Naruto waited for the snakes to get closer to him before raising his arm high above his head. He waited one more second before bringing his fist down upon the ground. There was a massive explosion, and the earth shook erratically.

Kimiko was sent head over heels by the shockwave, landing on a branch stomach first in a tree on the complete other side of the clearing. Mikoto landed on the branch that had caught her a second later, having been launched as well but been able to control it better.

Kimiko looked back at Ground Zero. "Whoa…" There was a large crater where Naruto had been standing before, and a large dust cloud obscuring their vision. "With the way he acts all the time you kinda forget what he can do…"

Mikoto frowned and tried to see through the cloud. This was the power that her brother's group was after. If they were also after the other Bijuu the only logical plan once they had them would be something like world domination. Just the thought of a world ruled by her brother made her enraged.

Before the dust cloud could disperse naturally a huge gust of wind slammed across the clearing. With her Sharingan Mikoto could see the large, sharp blades of wind that tore through everything in their path. She grabbed Kimiko's sleeve and threw her out of the tree before she vacated it herself. Just in time too, as three such blades tore through where they were just standing.

Kimiko looked down at her dress, which was gradually getting more and more destroyed as this night went on. She sighed and looked out at where the gust had come from. On the other side of the mansion, where she believed that other battle to be taking place. Then she remembered when Naruto had sent off all those clones.

"His clones did that?"

Mikoto just grunted and looked back to the hole in the ground. It was easily thirty yards wide and deep enough that she could only see those chakra ears of Naruto's sticking out. The wave of snakes from before was nowhere to be seen, but she spotted Kabuto a dozen yards away hunkered down with chakra to the ground.

Naruto calmly stepped up out of the crater and stood facing the now clearly aggravated medic.

"That last one didn't seem all that powerful. Those snake summons of yours are quite a waste if they can be dispelled so easily. Why don't you just make the same number of Shadow clones, surely they'd be more effective?"

Kabuto stood up and finished healing his leg and arm that were damaged in the blast. In stage two his body could heal incredibly fast on its own, but that last attack made it necessary for him to help the process along even faster.

"I don't need your help, I am your enemy. I'll kill you however I damn well please."

What he didn't say was that he silently agreed that his summons weren't getting him anywhere against him. Being a medic he never learned too many powerful techniques, and most of them were of the defensive variety. He had to protect Orochimaru-sama after all. He didn't trust the Retard-Four for even a minute.

But because of this he was severely outmatched in terms of ways to end the fight. It seemed that if Naruto so much as punched at him hard enough the blast might just kill him.

It was time to stop thinking about this like an overpowered juggernaut, and start thinking like a ninja. He compiled a list of what he knew of the blond's techniques and his weaknesses. The second list was surprisingly short.

'_So it's either Taijutsu or Genjutsu. But Taijutsu isn't a sure thing since he can make blasts like that with one hand. Not sure if I could survive being hit by that. Genjutsu it is then.'_ He surveyed the clearing and spied the red eyes watching the fight across the way. '_I have to make sure not to be too obvious about it or they'll come running. They are bound to know about at least this one obvious weakness. I've got to be quick about it.'_

Kabuto again launched into a series of hand signs, before placing his hands on the ground. The earth in front of him shifted and liquefied, forming a stream of mud that he launched to surround the blond then harden. It succeeded too, as Naruto seemed to let it happen.

'_That arrogance will be the end of you yet, boy!'_

What he didn't know is that this was a hybrid technique, between Ninjutsu and Genjutsu.

While inside the dome there is obviously no light, so in addition to the original earth technique there is a layered illusion designed to cut off all of the opponent's senses. What made this a good technique for him was that while the blond couldn't see anything and was trapped and immobile inside the illusion Kabuto could meld through the wall and execute a killing blow.

Kabuto placed his hands against the barrier and slowly went through it. Once he was on the other side he activated his chakra scalpel, going for the head. He was a bit disappointed that his chakra couldn't penetrate his chakra cloak, but he flung more chakra into the technique. With his blade now as strong as he could push it without making it impossible to hold together he managed to gradually push his way against the chakra barrier. But he never got far enough to actually touch Naruto with it as the Jinchuriki jerked his hand up and grabbed his wrist. Kabuto held back a scream as he felt the chakra burns already coming on.

"Tsk Tsk Kabuto, using a Genjutsu on me like that. Surely you know all the ways to cancel a Genjutsu? One of them is for someone else to fluctuate their own chakra inside you to break the hold the illusion has on you."

Kabuto grimly realized the truth to this. If the blond had the cooperation of the Kyuubi then the Kyuubi could disrupt the Genjutsu on Naruto. That virtually eliminated Uzumaki's last weakness he could use, and he just found out that he couldn't easily pierce that chakra cloak of his. It was time to cut his losses and to try to gain the Uchiha another time. As Orochimaru-sama's personal medic he couldn't let himself get killed while his master was suffering.

Kabuto let the wall around them crumble.

Naruto's eyes hardened as he brought back his other hand and ejected his hidden blade in the wrist guard. "I won't let you take away one of my friends. I hope you wrote your will before coming here. This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me."

Kabuto's eyes steeled in resolve. "I know it is." And he brought his other hand around and cleanly cut off the caught arm. He disappeared as soon as he was free to save himself from the attack.

Naruto stood there in a bit of a shock as he continued to hold the man's arm in his hand. He tried to locate him, but he just couldn't find Kabuto anywhere within his range of senses. When Kimiko and Mikoto stepped up behind him he figured that Kabuto must have fled. Naruto retracted his blade as he turned to them.

Asuma came running around the mansion a second latter. "Are you three okay over here? Your clone told me about who you were fighting. I had to stay and make sure there were no remaining forces on the other side. Where is he?"

Mikoto deactivated her bloodline and sighed as the draining effect let up. "He ran away before Naruto here could finish him. You can let up on that now you know."

Naruto looked down at himself and realized he still had the chakra cloak up. "Oh, yeah, I guess I could."

The solid chakra just seemed to vaporize and vanish into the air, and he seemed to go back to normal except that his eyes stayed slitted and his birthmarks were still a bit more jagged.

"It'll take a while for the residual amounts of chakra to wear off before the rest changes back. So how is everything on the home front?"

Asuma looked around the clearing, noticing the craters and decimated tree lines. "About the same as t is here. We only lost a handful of samurai in the confrontation. That wind technique of yours really is something else."

Naruto nodded as he suddenly received the condensed memories of all the clones as Alpha finally dispelled. "Actually, it was three techniques. Daitoppa, Great Hurricane, and Wind Blades. Make a big hurricane, fill it with wind blades, and then push it with an overpowered Daitoppa."

Asuma took a puff on his cigarette as he tried to imagine how it worked. "I see, well good on ya anyway. Whats that you got in your hand?"

Naruto then looked down at the arm he still held. "This was Kabuto's; he cut his arm off to be able to run away after I caught him. I figure we can take it back for the scientist types to look at. Kabuto had some super level cursed seal that transformed his body."

Asuma ruffled through his hip pouch and pulled out a green scroll. "Here, let's seal that up. Now we have to go make sure the guests got away safely and to meet back up with the Daimyo as well."

Kimiko spoke up finally. "By the way, Naruto, where exactly did that clone run off to with Harumi?"

Naruto's eyes widened a bit. "Shit, I just told it to take her and run. So I don't really know, hold on."

Naruto created another clone, and then dispelled it. A few seconds later he sighed in relief. "Its safe, about five miles away with the other guests. It took the blimp and flew away; oddly enough that was where the Daimyo was evacuated to. They're circling back now."

Kimiko looked around once more. "We aren't expected to pay for this damage right? Cuz I call know for damn sure that I didn't cause all this."

Asuma laughed as he led them all back inside. "Ha! No, the Daimyo is actually fairly used to a bit of destruction when there is an attack. This isn't even the original mansion. We destroyed it six years ago while fighting of some missing nin trying to start a revolution."

Naruto laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well that puts me at ease! So what do we do now? It turned out that all of this was some elaborate scheme by Orochimaru to get Mikoto out of the village where he could take her. The target never was focused on the Daimyo's family. I call dibs on not telling Harumi that her parents were killed to lure you out Mikoto. I've had more than enough people trying to kill me today."

Kimiko nodded as they passed through the front doors and into the courtyard where the other battle had taken place. "You wouldn't be my first choice to break it to her anyway. Us girls will be the ones to break the new s to her, away from everyone else. Stop glaring at me like that Mikoto, it is your responsibility to do it whether you like it or not."

Asuma stomped out the remains of his cigarette as they now stood next to the Guardians and watched as the blimp approached. The samurai were out and about gathering the remains of both friend and foe to be given a war funeral.

Fifteen minutes later and the blimp was once again landing in the now destroyed courtyard. As everyone stepped off the airship the Daimyo shook his head sadly. "I rather liked this version of the courtyard. Can we get someone to recreate it?"

One of the butlers following him bowed. "Of course Isao-sama, right away." The man hurried off into the building.

Harumi ran past the exiting group and right up to the trio of teen ninjas. "Are you all alright? I was so worried, and that copy of Naruto wouldn't tell me anything about what was happening. And what happened to your face Naruto? Your eyes and cheeks are weird, well weirder than normal anyways."

Kimiko laughed as she threw her arm across the girl's shoulders. "Don't worry about us, and blondie just needs a few minutes to cool back down. Your guard dog barked and scared off all the bad guys. He even made you a pool in the back yard!"

Naruto blushed and scowled. "Will you cut it out with that name already? And I don't bark."

"Whatever Fido, come on Harumi I'll tell you all about the fight and how I totally went up against this one guy and he couldn't do anything but block against me. I'm tellin ya girl, I'm awesome." As they walked off she shot a look over to Mikoto, who sighed and followed. She dreaded the coming conversation.

After they disappeared inside Isao and his entourage approached the two remaining males and the Guardians that stayed behind to fight. "That was a rather short battle. While we were lifting off I saw all those ninja running towards my castle. How on earth did you defeat them all in such a short amount of time?"

Chiriku stepped forward. "We were simply more prepared than the enemy Isao-sama. We were also better trained and were expecting them. Naruto-san played a role in decisively ending the fighting in such little time."

The Fire Lord looked at the teen and smiled at him. "Thank you for helping to defend my home Naruto-san. Let us go inside and celebrate the victory, after all tonight was supposed to be a party right?"

Naruto grinned. "Sure thing! I could defiantly go for some food right now, do you have any ramen?"

Isao walked ahead of the group laughing. "I'm sure my chefs can whip you up a bowl if that is really what you want."

"How about fifteen?"

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Come Sunday afternoon we find the Konoha team standing inside the front door of the Daimyo's castle. The night before the Daimyo had convinced all of the guests to go back to partying after the mess was cleaned out of the ball room. It was much more laid back and celebratory than the first one, with everyone glad to be safe. All of the Ninja and Samurai got the special treatment and thanks as the night went on. Eventually though, the visiting guests had all headed out in their carriages to go home.

Harumi was a bit more sullen than she was before, having heard the reason her parents were targeted. Over the course of the night though she seemed to return to how she was before, having already mainly dealt with the loss of her parents. She was smiling and laughing and sneaking off with alcoholic drinks. Kimiko was much the same, enjoying the fancy party while she still could and trying to make sure her dress doesn't get any more battered than it was before.

Mikoto had wandered around the party, occasionally getting caught up or dragged into a conversation. She did noticeably stay within Naruto's vicinity though.

Naruto had enjoyed himself immensely, naturally being the heart of the party. Now that the mission was technically over he could mingle with the guests and enjoy himself without being all serious and professional.

At the end of the night they all went to their separate rooms to get a full night's sleep after such an active day.

Now everyone was bidding the team goodbye. Harumi was dragging out promises to visit her from the two girls and Isao was trying to recruit Naruto into his Guardian team.

"Sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to stick around here. Thanks for the offer though. If you request enough missions from Konoha though, I might just show up on your doorstep one day to trim your hedges."

Everyone laughed at that and Isao said that he'd see what he could do. Naruto shook hands with the man and all twelve of his Elite Guard. He got dragged into a hug from the fire lord's affectionate wife, and a fake glare from the woman's husband.

After shaking the man's hand one more time he turned around and came face to face with Harumi. Well, more like her face to his shoulder. She was smiling at him sadly. Harumi reached out and hugged him.

"Goodbye Naruto, don't be a stranger alright. And how do you expect girls to like you when you make it uncomfortable to hug you with this metal under this vest?" She joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit between them.

Naruto laughed as he let go of her. "Don't be a stranger yourself. If you find yourself in Konoha with no idea where to go you know who to call. I'll even bring my non-armored vest. Try and show up on Tuesdays. I'm sure I could skip out of classes if I have to go ferry around the Daimyo's niece, and Iruka always has the most boring history lectures on Tuesdays."

With those promises to see everyone again soon the Team set back off to Konoha. Asuma set a reasonable pace since they weren't in any particular rush to cover the distance. The bearded Jonin was out in front, Naruto was behind him with his book up in his face. The two girls were in the back, with Kimiko talking Mikoto's ear off about all the gossip they might have missed.

Naruto was checking the book now to see if he really did have the technique down pat like he thought he did. He even formed it a few times along the way to make sure he could still do it right. He realized that he had made the chakra shell that housed the technique too thick when he used it on Kabuto, which lowered the potential damage of the technique. With that down he figured he had it down at least enough to use as a battle technique he could use more often in future confrontations.

He also realized something else.

"Ah man! You two got to use your swords a whole bunch in that fight and as soon as I bring out my bad ass blades Kabuto ups and runs away! No fair!"

All three of the others all laughed at him.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

It was late afternoon when the team presented themselves before the Hokage for their debriefing.

"So it was Orochimaru behind it then? I see, I'll have the situation looked into. It troubles me that he has numbers like that and this new cursed seal is troubling. Very well, you all are dismissed. Naruto, Kimiko, Mikoto, you all still have classes in the morning to plan to get a good night's sleep in. Asuma, there are no current missions logged to have you on them for the next few days. Why don't you come see me in four days and we'll see if anything comes up."

"Yes Hokage-sama." Was the chorus of all four before they left the office.

Asuma waved to them over his should as he said he'd see them around.

The three teens each went their separate ways to their separate homes. But there was a surprise awaiting Kimiko at her home. Several girls were seated on or around her couch when she walked through the door.

"Took ya long enough to get home. How was the mission? Anything juicy happen? I, we, want all the details stat!"

Kimiko let her bag drop to the floor with a thump as she kicked off her sandals. "Of course, you do. And I got just the thing, well things. First off we were at this party right? And somehow we got Mikoto, the same one I know we're all thinking about, to wear this revealing dress. I'm talking cleavage everywhere and a slit up the leg a mile long. And that's not even the best part; I got her to dance with Naruto! I swear, it wasn't just one of those arm length apart dances too! They were at it for like half an hour with Mikoto hanging off him the whole time." Her whole audience was riveted as she then launched into the whole story, building back up to the part where she had started from.

Two hours later and the girls had moved from the exciting mission to informing Kimiko of their plans for Naruto's birthday.

Kimiko grinned at them all, "I'm sure he's going to love it, I can tell. Now all we have to do is round everyone up and make sure Mr. Social doesn't catch wind of this."

The girls all put their hands together and then raised them with a cheer.

He didn't know it yet, but Naruto's fate had just been decided.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

**Well there goes another chapter. **

***author sings "Another one bites the dust". Badly.***

**If any of you are confused by the math involved where I measured the ratio in power between Naruto, Kabuto, and the Yondaime, just say so in the comments and I'll try to explain it better in the next chapter. I know it took me quite a while to get the ratios down myself so I'll understand if any of the readers need a hand.**

**I tried to be a bit creative in how I worded the fight, describing it, but not really going into an excruciatingly detailed blow by blow of the events. I think it turned out alright myself, but I guess I am just a bit biased. **

**Constructive criticism will be much appreciated. I feel that I can always get better than I am, and the best way to do that is to ask you guys. I know what its like to find a story that seems interesting but the author portrays it in some way you don't think is any good. Or they just have horrible grammar. I'm not saying mine is perfect, but I have seen a lot of those types of stories out there. **

**Anyway, I'll let you all get back to whatever it was you were doing before you started reading this.**

**~Dshadodragon**


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